The Small Donk Bet as an Exploitative Strategy
When you are facing a small donk bet, you should analyse it like any other type of bet. You have to ask yourself what the small donk bet means.
The gurus just tell you that a donk bet is a “weak lead” and you should just put in a big raise. They make poker sound so simple.
Definition of a Donk Bet: A bet on the flop that occurs when you are out of position against a pre-flop raiser. Instead of the checking to the pre-flop raiser, you bet into your opponent.
It’s calling stations who often use the small donk bet, although I have seen NITs use this strategy as well.
Just because a player is a NIT or a calling station, it doesn’t mean that this player is completely stupid. Almost every regular, of every playing style, knows that a small donk bet, is inviting an opponent to put in a big raise.
If a regular NIT or a calling station donk bets small on a dry flop, he is trying to tell you that he has a weak made hand. However, he could be deceiving you. He could have a super-strong hand and be asking you to bet the hand for him.
In this post, I will discuss how you can analyse what the small donk bet means and your options on how to play against it. I also explain how you can use the small donk bet to exploit certain types of opponents.
Example Hand 1: The Small Donk Bet on a Dry Flop
Flop: Villain Donk Bets (Small)
In the hand example above, MP donk bets 1BB. This is a min-bet. However, a small donk bet could be any amount up to around 1/3 of the pot.
The fact that this is a dry flop, with no draws is important. If it was a wet flop, a small donk bet could represent a draw. On a dry flop, villain’s range is polarised. His range consists of weak and strong hands.
In the case of a NIT, his weak range may be pocket pairs below top pair. This means that most of the time, your JJ is beaten on an Ace-high flop. In the case of a calling station, his weak range could be any one pair hand that doesn’t include an ace.
I use the small donk bet myself occasionally. If I am heads-up against an aggressive player and I flop a set, I might put in a small donk bet. I don’t do this all the time. I might do this once in a poker session. Once people have seen you use this strategy, it won’t work again.
So, how can you tell whether your opponent really has a weak hand or whether he is taking the mickey?
You can’t be sure. If I am facing a small donk bet, I use the following criteria to weigh up whether to raise or fold.
Is Your Opponent a Regular or a Newbie?
If you are playing against a regular, you should assume that he knows that a small donk bet is inviting a big raise. If this is the case, villain probably has a strong hand. This would argue towards folding.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that a newbie isn’t capable of sandbagging. I’ve raised newbies and been caught out on more than one occasion.
Is Your Opponent a Calling Station?
If your opponent is a calling station, he is almost never folding to a raise. Even If he has a 5 outer, he will call a raise. If you decide to raise and your opponent doesn’t re-raise, you will be left with a tricky decision on the turn. The pot will be bigger on the turn and you may have an awkward decision. For example, what is your plan, if the calling station puts in another small donk bet on the turn.
Even if your opponent checks on the turn and you check back, you may have a difficult decision on the river.
For example, what are you going to do if your opponent puts in a big bet on the river? You have shown weakness on the turn and that could invite a bluff on the river. Calling stations do bluff rivers.
In addition, many NITs bluff as well. They know that they have a tight table image and that other players don’t expect them to bluff.
Is Your Table Image Aggressive?
If you have been playing aggressively, your opponent would be more likely to invite you to raise.
Have You Been Caught Bluffing at the Table?
If you have the table image of a bluffer, a player is more likely to encourage you to bluff. In the hand example, you have a showdown value hand. Therefore, if you raise, it isn’t an outright bluff. However, you will be turning your hand into a bluff.
If your opponent has recently seen you raise a small donk bet, he might be more likely to donk bet with a strong hand.
How Should You Respond to a Small Donk Bet on a Dry Flop?
What about the Big Raise?
If you put in a big raise against a small donk bet, you end up in a big pot and in a murky situation. Sometimes, you have to take a read. If you think the small donk bet is a sign of weakness, you can raise. If you think that your opponent is trying to trick you into putting money into the pot, you should fold. You won’t always get it right. However, as long as you are right more often than wrong, you are doing ok.
Is Calling a Small Donk Bet an Option?
If your opponent suddenly bets big on the turn or river, how are you going to interpret this?
The problem is that, by just calling a small donk bet, your opponent will suspect that your hand is not very strong.
Therefore, when he suddenly bets big, you won’t know if that is because his hand is strong or if it is because you have shown weakness by just calling small bets.
Let’s Look at Folding
If you fold to a small donk bet, other players may use the same strategy to exploit you. This is unlikely to happen at microstakes. Most of these players have been taught that small donk bets are bad. Therefore, they won’t think about using the small donk bet. In addition, many microstakes players are playing on too many tables for them to observe and remember a hand that they were not involved in.
There may be the odd observant player, who will try and exploit you. The next time you are at the receiving end of a small donk bet, it may be a bluff. Alternatively, there might be other players, who know that you might not like to fold a second time to a small donk bet. Therefore, when these players have a strong hand, they might use the small donk bet to get you to raise and barrel.
If I see a player fold to a small donk bet, I would wait until I have a strong hand and put in a small donk bet against such a player. I would expect the target player to feel frustrated at folding to a small donk bet earlier on. I would hope that he fights back at the wrong time.
These complications don’t mean that folding is wrong. If you believe that your opponent would only put in a small donk bet with a strong hand, you should fold.
Then, you should deal with other complications, such as players exploiting you, by adjusting. One way to deal with the possibility of players exploiting what they have just seen, is to tighten up your play for a while. By the time that you loosen up your game again, most players will have forgotten about you folding to a small donk bet.
Let’s look at the Min-Raise
Let’s say, that you haven’t got a read whether your opponent has a strong or a weak hand. The min-raise is only viable, if you think that you can get villain to fold hands like KK and QQ on the turn or river. On the flop, villain has sets (9 combos) and pocket pairs below top pair (12 combos) in his range. As the combos of pocket pairs below top pair outnumber the combos of sets, you can barrel the turn and river.
A min-raise may help to get to the truth as to whether your opponent has a strong hand or a pocket pair below top pair. If you min-raise and your opponent re-raises, you can fold.
In this case, your opponent has told you what the strength of his hand is. With passive players, we know that a display of weakness followed by strength, means that their hand is very strong.
What if your opponent just calls your min-raise? We can’t be sure that his hand is weak yet. If villain checks on the turn, the chances are that his hand is weak. Most passive players wouldn’t be this patient if they had a monster hand. They would want to start building a pot.
The flop was dry. Therefore, if villain is slowplaying, he won’t be scared of the turn card. However, once the turn card appears, he may be worried about the river card. On a dry board, the turn card will usually put a draw on the board. Therefore, a player with a strong hand, would be unlikely to just call a min-raise on the flop and check the turn.
If your opponent min-bets or checks on the turn, you have to raise or bet big, respectively. If you are called, you have to bet ¾ of the pot on the river. If villain shows strength at any time, you have to fold.
Whatever your opponent does in this hand, you have valuable information for the future. If he shows strength on the river, you know that this player is patient with his strong hands. He could raised on the flop or the turn. However, he waited until the river to show strength.
If your opponent folds at any time, you know that you can barrel this player off his showdown value hands.
If he calls all bets and shows up with KK or QQ, you know that you can’t barrel this opponent off showdown value hands. However, you also know that you can bet for big value against this opponent, when you have top pair and he has a showdown value hand.
You just have to take a read and follow your gut sometimes in poker. Being at the receiving end of a small donk bet is one of those situations. When you min-raise and barrel, you get a lot of information about your opponent, regardless of the result.
Example Hand 2: The Small Donk Bet on a Wet Flop
A small donk bet would suggest that your opponent is on a draw. NITs don’t play many drawing hands. Usually, their suited hands consist of AKs and AQs. As such, you can put villain on a pair with showdown value (eg QQ-JJ) or A♥Q♥.
If your opponent is a calling station, he will have a wide range of suited heart hole cards in his range.
Unlike on a dry board, it’s improbable that he has a monster and is trying to trick you into raisng. The reason is because he would be scared that you would just call a small bet on a draw heavy board. Therefore, you should raise this to the size of the pot and bet again on the turn. If you get re-raised, you are done with the hand. Your opponent has acted weak. Consequently, if he shows any aggression in the hand, you should fold.
Why You Should Use the Small Donk Bet Yourself
A lot of my poker strategies are based on the idea that poker players have been brainwashed by the gurus to believe that a certain play is correct. In this case, the gurus have brainwashed poker players to believe that the donk bet is a “weak lead”. Their advice is to raise a donk bet aggressively.
So, there are a ton of poker players, who believe that the small donk bet is a sign of weakness.
Therefore, why not use this move mainly with strong hands?
You shouldn’t use this move too often. You want players to forget that you have used a donk bet with a strong hand, before you use the move again.
Using the small donk bet with strong hands is also taps into players’ egos. Many players will feel embarrassed to fold to a small bet.
If you can spot players with fragile egos, donk betting small, with a strong hand, will often work.
The types of players, that I am talking about, are those who brag or chat in a manner that suggests that they want other people to think that they are knowledgeable players. These players are vulnerable to raising a small donk bet, when you have a strong hand. They don’t want to appear weak to others by folding to a small bet.
The poker gurus have big egos, and this is why they have kept the small donk bet strategy secret. They don’t want to be seen folding hands to small bets and they don’t want to raise against a strong hand. When you have a strong hand, the small donk bet forces the guru to choose between protecting their ego and not losing money.
If they lose money, they will say, “Well, I had the right odds”. The unspoken answer to that comment is, “No, you didn’t have the right odds because I am only using the small donk bet against you, when I have a set”.
Worrying about what others think is exploitable at the poker table and in life.