When we raise PF and miss the flop completely, no straight draws or no flush draw, nothing, and a player donk bets into us, would you say raising is better long term than simply folding?

I know it sounds like a weird question but I was looking at my stats and lose quite a bit of money by folding on the flop in these spots and am wondering whether raising with air would have better results in the long term?

Well it helps to know what this bet means. It also helps to know how he reacts to various actions like calling or raising. This means you either need to pay attention to his shown down hands when he does this against another player or get to showdown cheaply with him and accept the loss of the hand as important information.

If he is not a folder, then you have low fold equity and should not raise but rather throw away your misses. It hurts by really only mentally. You can get these losses back by raising your good hands and expecting a call.

If he does fold or sometimes folds to raises, you can now play poker with him and raise some of your close misses and mix in some smoothcalls with good hands.

generally if the bet is really small you can raise it and 99% of the time they will fold.

I used to be the same way, now I raise their donk bets to find out what it means. For the majority of people at my stakes(10Nl/25NL) they have air or on a draw trying to take the pot down or get a cheap turn. Some players on the other hand donk bet their strong hands and I find out quick by raising it.

99% eeeek, im gonna have to say no here. usually a drooler will call regardless if what your action is after their donk bet (this has been my experience anyways.

i guess against those types of players youd play fit or fold. against a thinking player, i guess it would be board dependant (texture, range etc).

it may depend on the bet as well, ive seen a lot of people just min bet here. i take a lot of notes and by raising i can tell where im at in the hand. if you play against a person a lot this may be helpful.

Donk bets are very often weak, from experience. Bad players who don't understand c-betting will donk bet two pair +, and c/c with TPTK, seeing as those players are generally weak tight.

So short of a monster, it's generally fairly weak. I c/c with a decent TPTK like AQ nowadays and raise the turn simply becuse I'm losing value from weak hands. I generally don't like slow playing, but they generally do this with no pair no draw, so it's not too dangerous.

On drawy board, raise all day.

I need to turn this around because I think I may be guilty of donk betting this weekend when I was actually trying to see where I was and I got burned for it.

I was at Foxwoods playing 1/2 nlhe. I had been playing for several hours with the same people and from what I could tell my table image was tag, (I took down some good pots with surprise hands playing low ball as well as with high pairs that I played aggressively in position and didn't let myself get pushed around or be intimated by the other players).

In late / later position I sometimes limped in pf with KQ, QJ, JT, suited and unsuited when everyone before me had limped and I had a good feeling that it was going to be a family pot based on the style of players that were to come behind me.

After the flop I made second pair with an ok kicker, but with an ace on the board with no draws. Everyone checked before me so I threw out a value bet of $12 dollars. At the time in my mind I was doing this to see where I was. Everyone folded except an aggressive but good player. He re-raised $36, which I folded to.

Immediately after I did, I heard one of his friends say to him and another guy, "She shouldn't have done that because now....(can't hear)...ace".

This exact situation happens again when I'm in position with middle pair, with a high card on the board. Everyone folds, I place a small bet out there, same player makes a big re-raise, and I fold to him.

And....yes....I let the exact same thing happen again.

Thinking about this whole situation at least a hundred time since, this is where I see I did things wrong:

1) my value bets were too small and showed weakness

2) folding to his aggressiveness showed weakness from the first hand on

3) making a bet in the first place when all I had was middle pair and there was a high card on the board with at least two players still to act behind me

4) making the same move the second and definitely the third times - especially when I had a had a very strong suspicion that he smelled weakness and was taking advantage of it (which I certainly don't blame him for doing)

Any advice / insight from those of you who sound like the player I was up against would be greatly appreciated because I am very serious about improving my game. Thanks!!!