blonde poker forum

HU vs a really really good opponent.

I've been donk-betting quite a bit, in both 6max and HU games, I've been donking a pretty balanced range, and he'll be well aware that my donks are pretty balanced, i've bet bet/3betting, bet/calling, bet/folding all with pretty reasonable frequencies. He will have seen a decent amount of showdowns, if he has an instinct that my donking range is weighted towards a certain part of that range then I think he'll think more big(ish) draws (but that's just speculation from me he might not think anything, or something totally different) but i've certainly been donking enough for him to know that my range is quite wide.

This hand.

***** Hand History for Game 4852089457 ***** (IPoker)
$400.00 USD PL Omaha - Saturday, June 01, 05:15:40 ET 2013
Table Kilbricken (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 5: LeCordonnier ( $524.60 USD )
Seat 10: HERO ( $404.00 USD )
LeCordonnier posts small blind [$2.00 USD].
HERO posts big blind [$4.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to HERO [  2c 5c 4s Ts ]
LeCordonnier raises [$10.00 USD]
HERO calls [$8.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8c, 5s, 2s ]
HERO bets [$20.00 USD]
LeCordonnier calls [$20.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2h ]
HERO bets [$46.00 USD]
LeCordonnier raises [$116.00 USD]
HERO .... ($70 to call, with $256 behind)


OK, so it seemed like a good flop to donk giving the strategy i'd been playing, i've flopped a very good hand but its defo way better to play this one with initiative, cards above a 6 that aren't a T leave me kinda lost, I dont really get two streets of value of flushes unless I bluff catch (which isn't THAT cool in itself) and my hand can easily stand a raise. I think Betting the turn again is really the only play given how he much of his range (most of which will be drawing very thin) will love checking back and getting a free card. If I wanted to put nut hands in my chking range I think 88 or 55 is best because then I have more chance to have coolered him with a 2, which he'll bet 100%.

When  he raises the turn this leaves me in a bit of a pickle - obviously this is a nice problem with THIS hand as I have one of the best hands, but what do I do with say 578A (no spades), A456 with nut spades, JJ96 with J high spades? And here with the top of my range (close enough) how do I proceed for value. Pot is $296 and there is $256 in stacks AFTER i've called his turn raise (its $70 more.

Do you think shoving here + also shoving with A456 +NFD type hands as bluffs, or calling and doing...?something?...donk jamming, betting small on rivers?
Do I even need a calling range for this turn?

And as playing in this vacuum how do people play it?

I like the flop donkbet for the reasons you've given.

The turn is a nothing card and we've shown enough interest in the pot that we have to carry on betting, certainly when it does in fact smash our had.

When he raises I think we have a fairly easy call and check every river with our actual hand. With our range - and it's fair to assume we're betting most of it on this turn - we need to assume we're up against a hand he's raising for value, most of the time, that is calling a jam - good overpairs + good flush draws, 2x. He can ofc have 52 and 82 but doesn't have much 5s or 8s full in his range when he flats the flop (or does he? surely he has a few good draws he's raising so he's also raising his sets with lots of $ back?).

So with hands behind that value range I would probably just call or fold according to how live we think we are. With only one street after this there's some chance he's raising the turn with a medium strength value hand that he's planning on checking back on most rivers, so I'm not massively averse to calling with some good draws.

With a hand like 5s or 8s full - and I certainly think we should be donkbetting sets on this board basically every time - I think we should be jamming, as we might lose value vs the good op + fd portion of his range and he has twice as many 2x now.

so we cal turn with straight and NFD and we river a flush...

Chk/call, bet/fold, Jam?

check/decide, probably calling, let him rep a boat?

seems reasonable yh.