In poker, a donk bet is a bet made by a player sitting out of position who was not the aggressor in the previous betting round.
The term “donk” is short for “donkey,” a derogatory term used to describe weak or inexperienced poker players such as a fish or a whale. Early poker strategy considered this type of bet as one of the biggest mistakes a poker player can make and named it accordingly.
However, nowadays, donk bets are much more acceptable and, based on the situation, are considered an inevitable part of poker strategy.
Disadvantages of donk-betting:
- Losing the opportunity to learn additional information
- It makes it harder to properly balance ranges
- Check-raising is usually more effective
- Losing the opportunity to exploit players who c-bet too much
Advantages of donk-betting:
- Preventing the in-position player from realizing his equity
- Taking the initiative in the hand
In general, there are many more reasons to avoid donk-betting, especially if you are new to this concept since there is a high chance that you will not use this approach in the right way, which will cost you a lot of money.
Poker Donk Bet Example:
Let’s say you are playing Texas Hold’em and in the BB with 8d 9h in a 6-max game. UTG and HJ fold, the CO raises to 3bb, the BTN and BB fold, and you make the call.
The flop comes Js Td 7s, and you make a ½ bet with your straight.
In this example, your ½ bet is called a donk bet since you weren’t the aggressor preflop and made a bet out of position leading into another player.
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