I want to post here a hand, open for discussion.This hand was played before I saw the Concept Video. I have reads against my opponent because this is our second match - he won the first during High Blinds play.He is tight aggressiv, 4% ROI Winner after 600 games. As I have a good run since I started HUSNGs, I choose to play him once again to improve my game against fairly good regulars. I can deduct my Donk Bets read more from his check-raising reads: In the previous game he checkraised me twice: Once with a flush draw, once with an open ender. See my comments between the single streets: $10.00/$20.00 No Limit Holdem • 2 Players Hand converted by the official HUSNG.com hand converter BBVillain$1700.00 BTNHero$1300.00 Effective Stacks: 65bb Pre-Flop ($30.00, 2 players) Hero is BTN Hero raises to $40.00, Villain calls $20.00 //opening 2x is my standard. Some users here in the forum said I should raise 3x in the first level. Usually I follow the advises from HUSNG Members, but I feel very comfortable with 2x and have a lot of success at least at the 5.25$. So I will keep in mind that perhaps sometimes I have to change this strategy, but for now I stick with it Flop ($80.00, 2 players) ScheRo2008 bets $80.00, Hero calls $80.00//very interesting. He does not donk bet on a regular basis. But because he checkraised me with his draws in out previous match I excluded the straight draw. I am a wide c-bettor (altough on this flop I probably would check behind) - so he easely could checkraise me with his draw or made straight or even slowplay his straight. Why did I call? I put him on a weak to middle strong made hand. I could see three things happen on the turn: 1. I hit one of my 6 outs and am often ahead2. I hit one of my 16 bluff outs: 3,4,9,8. In this case if he bets I re-evaluate my read that he can't have a draw, or if he checks I bet 180$3. The Turn Bricks: He checks I bet, he bets I foldAfter watching Matt's Video I will reflect the points on his Sheets "When you have reads on donk bets" to find out if my flat call on this flop was ok."What are Villains's pre-flop ranges? How does this affect their post-flop ranges?"- I can only exclude 84 from the range and maybe 43 (but of course my 2x makes it likely he calls with 43). For the rest many hands he has hit this board. But my read from his donk bet was he hit it so so."With what frequency is Villain donk-betting?"Not very often as he checkraises his draws (so far!)"What sizing are they using?"That was interesting about this opponent: On the flop, when he bets he always bets full pot - no difference in c-bets, donk bets, bets in limped pots. No reads from that"What board textures are they doing it on?"Another aspect is, that he maybe thinks this flop is not gonna hit me very often."Have we seen any showdown pots?"Yep, solide showdowns, maybe sometimes not willing to extract most value on the river Turn ($240.00, 2 players) Villain bets $100.00, Hero calls $100.00 // Nice! That is why I run good. Seems I sucked out. His bet tells me he now think he has a weak made hand, and I see no reason to raise him as I don't put him on a draw. Maybe he plays the nuts this way because he want to get raised, but so far his betsizes where consistent with his hand strength on turn and river River ($440.00, 2 players) Villain bets $150.00, Hero calls $150.00 // This is a blocking bet! But I do realize it just now in hindsight and so I just called. Maybe I should raise here, but as he is a solid player after he made the blocking bet, he probably will fold to a raise. Good bet from his part in my opinion Final Pot: $740.00 I excluded the result of the hand. Will reveal what he had after discussion. Now my main questions are regarding the flop play. Is my hand, against this specific opponent and on this board texture worth a flat call?Funny sidenote: After this hand Villain beratet me for being the worst player he has ever seen, and that usually he hates playing against fish like me that call the flop with k high.I put a lot of work in a hand that plays in 10sec, and my english is very bad, so for me it's not easy to put my tought process in this language. Hope to become feedback, even if the hand seems trivial to you, it's not for me :)Will play 2 sessions in the next 8 hours and my goal is to post here two more hands regarding this topic. Thank you Matt again for the great Video
Here another hand to the topic donk bets.This time I have no read on Villain. $10.00/$20.00 No Limit Holdem • 2 Players Hand converted by the official HUSNG.com hand converter BBVillain$1360.00 BTNHero$1640.00 Effective Stacks: 68bb Pre-Flop ($30.00, 2 players) Hero is BTN Hero raises to $40.00, Villain calls $20.00ds Flop ($80.00, 2 players) Villain bets $60.00, Hero raises to $180.00, Villain folds // - What do we know about our opponent? Nothing right now, new opponent, new game- What is our hand strengthWe have a good hand, tp good kicker, but hand strengt is relative if he now decides to come over the top. I raised because there are so many bad turn cards- What is the sizingStandard bet of 3/4 pot. I 3x himMatt stated in his sheets "Readless vs Donkbets": "Flatting the large majority of stronger equity hands will often be best due to the polarised nature of the fields donk betting range". But I decided to raise because of the board texture. My main questions are: Is my raise on the flop fine, and how do we react if he comes over the top. I can see many draws pushing AND having us in bad shape, worst case j10s 107s, but even j10, 710. Not to mention that two pair 98, or even set 8 or set 9 are possible. I think I would fold my hand. Final Pot: $320.00 Hero shows Hero wins $320.00 ( won +$100.00 ) Villain lost -$100.00
So, here my last 2 hands regarding donk bets. And I can present you the Masta of Donkbettors. Reads on this Villain: HE DONKED EVERY POT I RAISED; WITHOUT EXCEPTION. AND HE ALSO MADE OVERBETS SOMETIMES AND FIRED A SECOND BARRELL. After a few more succesfull donkbets from his side, I decided to readjust my preflop opening range. I started limping hands, that have more problems in flopping tp, such as k6, k7, k8, q7, q8 and even very small aces A2-A6 - fine thing was he never attacked my limps. Here to typical hands: $10.00/$20.00 No Limit Holdem • 2 Players Hand converted by the official HUSNG.com hand converter BBVillain$1570.00 BTNHero$1430.00 Effective Stacks: 72bb Pre-Flop ($30.00, 2 players) Hero is BTN Hero raises to $40.00, Villain calls $20.00 Flop ($80.00, 2 players) Villain bets $100.00, Hero calls $100.00 Turn ($280.00, 2 players) Villain bets $200.00, Hero calls $200.00 River ($680.00, 2 players) Villain checks, Hero bets $680.00, Villain folds Final Pot: $1360.00 Hero shows Hero wins $1360.00 ( won +$340.00 ) Villain lost -$340.00 $15.00/$30.00 No Limit Holdem • 2 Players Hand converted by the official HUSNG.com hand converter BBVillain$1565.00 BTNHero$1435.00 Effective Stacks: 48bb Pre-Flop ($45.00, 2 players) Hero is BTN Hero raises to $60.00, Villain calls $30.00 Flop ($120.00, 2 players) Villain bets $100.00, Hero calls $100.00 Turn ($320.00, 2 players) Villain bets $300.00, Hero calls $300.00 River ($920.00, 2 players) Villain checks, Hero bets $270.00, Jan Colak folds Final Pot: $1190.00 Hero shows Hero wins $1190.00 ( won +$460.00 ) Villain lost -$460.00 Looking at the hands now, I think the only big (but important differnce) is the board texture. I think the QJ hand is played ok, but the the flop on the A8 hand is maybe to wet to call down. My conclusion from this hands: Against an habitual donk bettor it is very important to adjust the opening range as it is not really possible to take down with a c-bet.
Hand one: I would fold flop even with your reads. I would much prefer that we weren't purely drawing to 6 outs like we are in this spot. Like if it was T76 and you had very similar reads I would like it a lot more because we do pick up equity and consequently we also have far superior implied odds when we hit a backdoor draw. The other problem you are not thinking of on this type of board and considering all 6 of your outs clean is that he can have hands like K5/K6/K7 and Q5/A6/A7 in which case your in a lot of trouble, and there are certainly consequences when you do hit a pair since your never really folding...That bring up another interesting point; What if he pots turn and river with the way the board ran out... Are you comfortable against this?
Follow me on twitter --- Check out my Blog
Hand Two: I think raising is good but on this texture it should be to raise/get it in. We have one bloacker to the nut-straightdraws with the Q and the combos of 9x are also reduced given that we have one. This is going to move his range in a certain way also, like there is literally only one combo of 99 he can have.Let's take a look at what pokerstove says:--- 123,750 games 0.001 secs 123,750,000 games/secBoard: 9s 8h 3hDead: equity win tie pots won pots tied Hand 0: 50.916% 47.69% 03.23% 59014 3994.50 { Qc9c }Hand 1: 49.084% 45.86% 03.23% 56747 3994.50 { 99-88, 33, A9s, Ah7h, Ah6h, Ah5h, Ah4h, Ah2h, KhQh, KhJh, KhTh, K9s, Kh7h, QJs, QhTh, Q9s, Qh7h, J9s+, Jh7h, T9s, T7s, 95s+, A9o, K9o, QJo, Q9o, J9o+, T9o, T7o, 96o+ }---That's a pretty tight range including his possible value hands and potential drawing hands. We have 50% equity and that is more than enough to stackoff on the flop. And with all of that I haven't included the times he can spazz out with a hand like 57 or something (I'm assuming this is at the $5's and people will have some random spazz in range). All of the FD's I included were heart FD's except for the T7s and JTs where I included all suited combos.I like that you raised on this texture because there is a lot he will stackoff with on this texture and we are doing pretty well against even a strong range. Your sizing seems fine, anywhere between t160-190 is good.
Follow me on twitter --- Check out my Blog
Hand 3 and 4: The most important read you can have against this guy is how light does he stackoff after donkbetting? Obviously his range is wide but he is going to have something some of the time if he is doing it always...Hand 3, I like raising flop because of texture. He can have a lot more hands that can continue on A67cc, Sooooo many possible SD's and FD's as well as pairs that have an easy time making excuses and putting you on a draw + hands like 78 here are never folding flop and will stack turn if he picks up equity (by the sounds of villain). Plus we are pretty deep and I want to build the pot - protect my hand - and get maximum value. Hand 4, I think flat is ok but again it goes back to his stackoff range and floating a raise range. The board is just so dry though flat is always going to be best. Turn is ok as well, but if he is always c/folding rivers and not firing a 3rd time (me being results oriented off ur 2 examples ldo =P) then raising the turn will be ok as well as there are plenty of hands that did in fact pick up equity on the turn...
Follow me on twitter --- Check out my Blog
Thank you very much! I see that I have a lot to learn about board textures and how to react.Then I have to learn a lot about when to raise and when to flat. I have often the problem that in my mind I can't see hands able to call my raises, maybe because of my years of live full ring no limit holdem. Hand 1) You are completely right. Going through my hand history I found this hand, and the hand reminded me of the AK hand you folded in your Vid. I am gonna mostly fold such overcard hands in future - on such boards. And seeing he barrelled three times shows that I would probably not been able to take the hand away from him - I was just lucky to suck out.Hand 2) Thanks a lot.Hand 3) and 4) We had just one showdown in this game, the last hand. But you are right, in hindsight I think he is able to stackoff light, just from his maniac style. Maybe both times I missed a lot of value from draws.
Just want to say i really enjoyed this video. You asked if we wanted you to do it differently. I think a two prong approach is best. 1) Power Point Presentation. This teaches us the abstract theory. 2) Examples in a hand replayer. This demonstrates how to apply the theory. I know those who already understand this stuff might find it boring, but those of us who are learning find it very helpful.PaulIB_FishingHas a much better understanding of playing against donk bets.
Glad you liked the vid man. The other feedback I got def suggested more hands so when I get around to the next video I will take all of this into consideration... :p
Follow me on twitter --- Check out my Blog