I have a secret: I love donking. It’s fun because it’s usually unconventional and almost invariably confuses and / or frustrates my opponents. Unfortunately, I don’t often get a lot of opportunities to employ this rather brilliant stratagem because most opponents are aggressive enough that check/raising for value is the superior play.

However, I did play a recent session where I had an abnormal number of good donking opportunities. I thought discussing when and why I donk would be beneficial as (DeathDonkey tells me) the blog’s been a bit lacking in content lately. Generally speaking, I’m looking to donk when I have a hand that wants a bet going in but can’t necessarily rely on someone else to bet for me.

Here are two examples:

Hand 1

Full Tilt Poker $5/$10 Limit Hold’em – 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Pre Flop: (1.5 SB) Hero is SB with 9 7
1 fold, MP calls, 2 folds, Hero calls, BB checks

Flop: (3 SB) T 8 T (3 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, MP bets, Hero calls, BB folds

Turn: (2.5 BB) 9 (2 players)
Hero bets, MP calls

River: (4.5 BB) 6 (2 players)
Hero bets, MP folds

Final Pot: 4.5 BB
Hero wins 4.3 BB
(Rake: $2.00)

I actually think I made a mistake by not donking the flop. My bet would partially be for value but also because I don’t mind if both opponents fold outright and I win with 9 high (note that they will pretty much always be making a Fundamental Theorem of Poker mistake when they fold to my bet). Also, because there was no pre flop raise I am not at all sure the flop will get bet, and when it gets checked my chances of winning the pot unimproved drop precipitously.

Other benefits of donking are that I get to see how everyone reacts and keep myself in the hand (if I check I could face 2 bets cold, in which case I’d fold in such a small pot). Also, this hand fits in well with my (hopefully) balanced donking range: Tx, 8x, small pocket pairs I didn’t raise pre flop (so maybe 44-22), many combo draws (flush draws, especially with some sort of straight draw and / or overcards, overcard gutshots, especially with a backdoor flush draw, etc.), and a few semi-bluff type hands (e.g., Ax with a backdoor flush draw, K9 with a backdoor flush draw, etc.). I would pretty much never bluff with complete air as I feel the board is too draw friendly for that to be a good play.

The rest of the hand kind of played itself. I feel I have to bet on the turn since the connectedness of the 9 will often scare villain into checking. Also, now that I’ve made a pair I have the best hand here almost always (I’ve overtaken 8x, every reasonable pocket pair he could hold, and all of his random hands), so I need to put a bet in. On the river I improve and obviously need to continue to get value.

Hand 2

Full Tilt Poker $5/$10 Limit Hold’em – 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Pre Flop: (1.5 SB) Hero is BB with 9 Q
UTG calls, 1 fold, BTN calls, SB calls, Hero checks

Flop: (4 SB) 7 J 8 (4 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, UTG checks, BTN bets, SB folds, Hero calls, UTG calls

Turn: (3.5 BB) Q (3 players)
Hero bets, UTG calls, BTN calls

River: (6.5 BB) 6 (3 players)
Hero bets, UTG folds, BTN calls

Final Pot: 8.5 BB
BTN mucks J A
Hero shows 9 Q (a pair of Queens)
Hero wins 8.2 BB
(Rake: $3.00)

On the flop I don’t really see much value in betting my marginal hand (though it is important to note that if a T rolls off I make the nut straight and beat rather than chop 9x) 4 ways in such a small pot. I think I’m better off checking and trying to gather information based on my opponent’s actions. At the same time, I’m clearly not folding for one bet to a button who could easily be stabbing after no one shows interest in the pot.

On the turn I improve to what is very likely the best hand, so I want to get value and protect it. The best way to accomplish this is to bet out since I don’t know if button will bet the turn. Since I feel he could easily be stabbing on the flop there are many hands he could hold here that often won’t necessarily bet again on the turn (Tx, 9x, 8x, 7x, 65, a small pocket pair, flush draws, A high, and air). Also, since he overlimped pre flop he may even be passive enough to check Jx here. Note that I’m making this statement based more on what I perceive as his hand range rather than how ’scary’ the Q is to him (the one exception may be being in the case where he holds Jx and checks it back).

The river’s pretty much a brick, so given that I was only called on the turn clearly a value bet is the play. That said, I think it’s important to be aware of how the 6 affects the villain’s hand range. 54, 86, and 76 overtake our hand. While the latter two are possible holdings, the first is very unlikely as a villain would have to be pretty bad to continue to peel to an undercard gutshot. However, the news isn’t all bad because 96 and 65 now may have made enough of a hand to throw in a crying call.