PLO25

6 Handed and I'm in the BB with A Q J 5

UTG raises to $0.70 ($27.02)
HJ calls ($26.08)
CO folds
BTN calls ($16.68)
SB calls ($21.14)
BB (hero) calls (I cover, $51.21)

5 way to a flop of 5 9 5 (pot $3.55)

SB checks
Hero bets $2.63
UTG raises to $6.86
everyone else folds back to me and I call

heads up to a turn of 8 ($17.22)

I bet pot
UTG goes all in for ~$3 more and I call

River A

How would you play this hand and why

fold/call/shove flop?

what would you do on the turn?

cheers

What's the point of donking turn?

thought he doesn't have 99 or 95 (so maybe i should of get it in on the flop instead?) and not too likely to have 67.

probably not as interesting of a hand as it seemed at the time looking back at it as I think I should usually be quite far ahead on the flop and go all in

Entire hand seems random, I would ask why at every point (why donk bet flop, why just call, why donk bet turn).
How are you balancing either donk? How are you not always check/folding if this is a donk?

Getting all in seems almost inevitable vs. certain hands with this runout but it still matters a lot when you did it and why.

You donk into 4players and he raised you..I can not see how you can be usually far ahead on the flop.If you thought that,then i guess all in would be better than flatting.I would probably check fold this hand in 5way pot.Maybe call if BTN bets.

Donked pot as this is what I usually do when flopping trips and give myself the option of a fold if I get raised, just in this hand I hadn't quite realised how strong my hand was here also didn't really think I'd get raised and didn't want to see a dodgy turn

I just called because I was thinking out what hands he had, bit slow with my thinking and wasn't too much more to call

I donked the turn as by this point I realised I was probably ahead and would prefer to try and take the pot down now/ get my money in ahead

I dont really understand balancing if someone could give me a quick sentence or two about being balanced in this hand it would be a big help

How would I balance either donk? And why would I always be check folding if this is a donk? I might be check calling with overpair and hearts for example here or the straight draw and hearts

Cheers for replies

Fold preflop imo. What are you hoping to flop with a rainbow hand in a 4way pot, OOP vs 3 of them?

Probably fold pre. I call with the suited ace. Call isn't terrible, because while we have bad absolute position we have good relative position to the pre flop raiser.

Check flop. Our hand is strong, but hard to get called by a lot worse and we're going to be in a position to win a big pot v. a flush if we make a boat. We also don't want to get raised by one of the pre-flop callers, who easily could have 99 or 95.

Any stats/reads on UTG? Once UTG raises and it folds around I probably shove flop, as I like our hand a lot more against the PFR in what is now a head's up pot. There shouldn't be a lot of 99/95 in an UTG range, and PLO players are known to overplay overpairs, especially AA. Would certainly prefer re-raise flop to donking turn, as you're just giving him another card to catch up by donking blank turns.

People who care about balance very rarely or never donk. Alternatively, most people who donk are super-unbalanced about it, and donk either with a very strong hand, or a marginal one. I like to take a note on what players will donk with, because it's very predictive and comes up a lot, although some players will donk with marginal hands in head's up pots, but only donk with monsters multi-way. If I saw your hand at showdown I'd make a note that you're a strong donker, and if you donked in this type of spot in the future I'd strongly discount the possibility that you had a marginal hand (like overpair + NFD or something similar).

I think donking is great here and our hand is kind of weak with only a 5 on turn or runner runner overcard improving it. This is going to get checked through often but we need protection, we have the range advantage, and we're in a position where our opponents will play their hand honestly.

If villain raises all full houses, trips with ace, trips with hearts, and QQ-AA with nut hearts vs our donk bet, we're not pushing any equity. If we start adding a 9 into villains overpair range our equity drops as low as 32%, and if we remove them we're crushed.

If we're called it puts us in a way better position to play the turn than if we check call or it checks through. Check through is a disaster if a heart hits or if an A/J/Q comes and an opponent bets, and if we check/call we are almost always putting money in behind or against the same hand with a redraw, some turns and most rivers would have to be a fold.

This are the reasons why donk/fold looks like the best line to me.

1. ah right I would have never thought to fold pre here I thought we had a pretty strong hand what with three picture cards and one suit........also I would have thought our hand could be a lot better than some of the other hands calling and we are getting a good price.

2. yeah I don't want to get raised here if they could easily have 99 or 95, I just would have thought it is unlikely to get raised as why would you raise with the nuts, people fold so often, when I do this they always fold and I'm annoyed with myself for making them fold

3. hadn't been at the table long but the table is pretty lively and looks like a good table to be on, no particular reads on UTG, no stats on this site by the way

4. yeah nice point working out how our hand can look vs UTG... think i was thinking along those lines just took me by the turn to work it out

think i need to start taking notes myself maybe I should mix up my donking strategy if that's even possible to try and be more balanced I thought donking was a good play some of the time in PLO but not NL.

cheers for explaining that

What?

Being balanced means you should have a donk range (even if it's small)
Never donking is UNbalanced