I ran into two spots tonight playing 1/2 where someone either limp/called preflop or called out of the blinds and then donk bet the flop. How do you, in general, handle these situations?

Here are the two spots (both $200 eff):

Hand 1: Unopened pot, I'm in the CO with As-4s. I raised to $12 and the big blind called. Flop comes 10s-7s-7d and he leads for $20. He was a young asian guy who had been talking about raising dark so he's probably a gambler. My image is nitty tight. I hate flatting and I hate folding so I guess a raise is the best option. Agree? I made it $65 FWIW.

Hand 2: Early position, 8c-8s. I made it $12 and got a two players behind me to call and one of the blinds. on a flop of 5d-6s-9s the blind leads out for $30. I settled on a call but wondering what others might do here. Folding seems really weak but I don't hate it either. Is BB really leading into four players with a pair + fd? Naked pair? (doubtful) Flush draw? (maybe). Also a younger asian guy but seemed a lot tighter. My image is still nitty tight.

In the home game I play in I have a really laggy image and people have "adjusted" to me by donk betting a lot. I've countered by almost always raising and have been doing really well with it but haven't had as much success in casinos with the same strategy.

h1; raising is best. I do 60, shove turn. probably going to fold a lot of 10x otf or ott.

h2; Call me a nit, but with 2 to act and a lead from the blinds, I'm folding or raising. I'm more inclined to folding.

I'm assuming button and SB folded in hand one? I love flatting here - donk probably has a ten, and your call might slow him down. Not really enough info about villain - he can say whatever he wants. I sat with a young blingy asian player who ha da hat that said "gambler" but was the biggest nit. Nowadays I'd keep my mouth shut, but I couldn't help joking with him that he needs to live up to his hat and stop folding so much.

I don't hate a flat here. I'd almost rather see the turn and if I miss, raise a small bet and fold to a big one. If he keeps pushing hard on the turn, he's probably serious, but if he puts out a blocking bet, it's more likely a ten trying to figure out if you have a 7. Your nitty image could hurt you in that respect though...If you hit an ace, just try to pot control and check down if you can.

Also, you may want to review the sticky about the new rules for posting in the forum..

Donk bets are dependent on board texture, villian profile, and chip stacks .

Also, what is the intent of the donk bet? Is it a feeler/probe bet, blocking bet, a " I have a real hand AK is no good" bet??? Is V a level I player or II or III ???

And what is hero's image?

The short answer is I usually ignore them and bet what I'd normally bet or if it is equal to my cbet I just flat. Once V shows any weakness or a scare card hits I retake the initiative and establish myself as the dominant.

I think where most go wrong is that they let the donk bet scare them into being weak/passive. Don't. One way to combat that is to just play the hand as if you had AA.

Whenever the board pairs and a live player donks into you he never has trips. Villain's range in hand 1 is capped to a ten. There are many more combos of gutshot/OESDs, pocket pairs below a T, and complete air in his range than there are tens, so raise it up and jam turn unless this guy is a whale who always puts on you AK, then just c/f.

Hand 2 is a snap fold in a multiway pot.

so i think hand 1 is being missread to some extent.... if its a rainbow flop i would agree villain never stacks off with what he donks (OESD/Tx) but w/ a flush draw out there and not enough information to determine if he thinks you cbet a high % of the time he COULD do this w/ a 7 to charge draws on a drawy board or induce... idk if I am as aggressive as suggested.... Either way its raise or fold depending on reads I think. Flat just encourages people to call you down light on later streets.

hand 2 you got to fold as he has a lot of 2p and made hands that you can't get him off I think

I'm glad you got into examples, but all donks are not created equal.

Hand 2 is definitely a fold. Donking into three on a wet board is strong.

Hand 1 why do you hate flatting? You have the nfd in position. You can do raise or call here based on how loose you feel like villain is calling.

lol

I'd probably just flat hand one. We have an over and the nut flush draw plus position (where villain might even slow down once we call the flop). I'd more likely raise here if I felt the donk was a "where am I at" bet by a weakish player who can fold to a raise.

Hand two (which should be an open limp preflop, IMO; I mean, we're going 4+ ways to the flop and in bad position, we're setmining, so might as well do that for cheap) I fold. Our outs are dirty, we've two players still to act behind us who could go nuts, plus someone betting big into 3 players in a raised drawy board pot is usually pretty strong, and we've just got 2nd pair / poor implied odds gutshot.


I've also been thinking about how to handle donk bets in pots where I've raised in position and gotten in heads up and then hit top pair (or have an overpair). I find these difficult situations in that I usually just end up calling down, but a calldown in a raised pot can often times put stacks at risk, so by the turn/river I'm re-considering perhaps folding, but that's hard to do since I've kinda underrepped my hand postflop. But then by raising the flop, it does give us a chance to perhaps get away from our hand if villain goes crazy (almost a dreaded "information raise"), but then we also end up building a huge pot if called and are left in a what-to-do situation on turn (bet/fold turn, check behind river?). I find getting donked into with TP a much more difficult subject.