Article: Donkbetting in Pot Limit Omaha

[Jabonator]

This is an article I originally wrote for the Finnish equivalent of coinflip.com - pokerisivut.com. A few days ago I decided to translate into English, and I wanted to share it with you guys too.

Donkbetting in Pot Limit Omaha


Foreword
Donkbetting, or leading out means betting out of position against the previous aggressor. Most of the time the case is, that contrary to the usual game flow, you bet out against the preflop raiser on the flop, after flatting his open, eg from the blind. In my article about this tool I'm trying to go rather deep, so I'm leaving my analysis to mostly flop situations, so that the article doesn't blow up too long. Donkbetting is a surprisingly good weapon to have in your poker arsenal, so you shouldn't forget it. A big part of the strength of this move is based on the fact, that it's used so infrequently, that when villain faces it, he often doesn't know how to react. In this article I will through theory and example situations talk about good situations and hands for donkbetting, and the benefits of doing so.

Often when I'm playing PLO, I find myself going to autopilot, especially when playing multiple tables. This problem seems to be common, and even if you're playing profitably, it's still not optimal, and surely doesn't evolve your game. This is when donkbetting seems to be very minimal, because when I'm on autopilot, I cbet when I'm the preflop aggressor and check to the pf-raiser with few exceptions. This way I might get into situations where every option against villains continuation bet feels bad, whereas betting out could have made the hand much easier to play. I myself am also just developing my donkbetting game, and when talking about it with other PLOtards, I've realized that I may understand more about it than I had been aware of. This has helped me develop my game and my mindset when approaching the game. I hope this article can get you to think about these situations and this way help you evolve your game to the next level.

Donkbetting in Multiway Pots (3+)
I'm going to start dealing with this in multiway pots, because there donkbetting is usually more unambiguous and therefore it's a good stepping stone to reach the right train of thought.

Let's start from a couple basics. Betting in general has two goals - get paid by worse hands, or make better hands fold. This is also true with the donkbet. In addition, it's also used to take control of the pot. If check-folding doesn't feel right, but you don't feel check-calling accomplishes much either, consider donkbetting. In multiwaypots I'd make a bit less moves with my donkbetting, and try to play pretty straightforward, but you have to balance it. As an easy rule of thumb, I'd say that in multiway pots donkbetting is usually viable with a strongish made hand in a dry board, because these kinds of flops cbet is made less often. The pot stays small in relation to the strength of your hand and random hands get a free card and the chance to draw out on you.

Let's take an example

Example no. 1
PLO 100. 6max. Everyone's 100bb deep.
You're in the big blind, holding 7s7h6c5s.
A regular TAG CO opens for pot, so the raise is 3,5bb, as it's folded over to him. BU, looser-than-average losing player call, unknown in the small blind also flat call, and you only have to pay 2,5bb, so you see a flop with a marginal hand for a low price.

Flop 1 KdJd7c
SB checks.

You hit your set, and it's checked to you. You still have two players to act behind you, including the preflop raiser. Should you lead out? No. The flop texture is such, that it's highly likely it hit the pf-aggressor, so you should probably go for a check-raise. If you hit a bit less than the pot and don't get raised, you're in a very tough situation with most turn cards, because you have almost no information about villains hand and only 2-6 (no diamonds) are fully blank. You'd still have a SPR of 3. By check-raising, however, you get a nice portion of your stack in on the flop, depending on the size of the assumed cbet, possible calls, or even raises (of course, if the action gets too hot, you might even fold the bottom set).

Flop 2 934r
SB checks.

The flop looks rather raggedy, not even a flush draw, and the cards are small. You, however, hit it quite nicely - wrap + midpair. This is a situation where both check-raising and donkbetting are considerable options, and you should vary them, depending on villains' tendencies. For example, if the pf-raiser seems to bluffraise donkbets ofter, with these stacks, leading out works well. You bet 10bb into a pot of 14bb, which CO raises to 35bb. You get to shove allin for 97bb, and villain will fold if he's not super strong, which is very rare with this flop. Sometimes you might get the money in good against a wrap without a pair, against a smaller wrap, etc. Seems like a nice spot. If villain cbets with a wide range in multiway pots, may check-raise be the better option.

As usual, balancing out your betting is very important. If you make certain types of bets with certain types of hands, it's a big leak and when other players notice it, it will cost you dearly. That is why those flops are good to every now and then lead into out of position just as a bluff, maybe with a gutshot for some equity. The flop looks so crappy, that if your tablemates don't think you make too many moves, they tend to put you on a set surprisingly often.

Flop 3 J72r
SB checks.

Again, a good flop to lead out. Unless the pf-raiser is very aggressive, his cbet-range for this flop against 3 players is very likely to be pretty narrow. Still, you can easily get called by top pair and a couple overcards, or other marginal hands, which would still rather take a feww card if they were given the chance. Again, you should balance out this play by occasionally leading out as a bluff, wrap or overpair. Stay balanced and you won't fall.

The profitability of donkbetting has a number of factors - the number of players, depth of stacks, flop texture, villains' playing style, your own playing style, etc. Remember to take these things into consideration - what should the factors be like for donkbetting to be the optimal option? In the examples given, the situation would be very different if we were 200bbs deep, or villain was cbetting close to 100 per cent.

Donkbetting in HU Pots
In heads-up pots the use of the donkbet is in my opinion very underrated, but still very important. If you're going to call raises preflop without position, you can't check every flop, because it makes your play too transparent. Villain barrels his continuation bets and picks away small pots, and folds when you finally raise him with your set - to exaggerate a bit. I myself favor taking control before the flop by 3- and 4-betting, but sometimes you can, and should, just flat. Just remember to concentrate, so that you don't just check every flop automatically and start thinking about different options when villain makes his cbet. Surprisingly often you find yourself in tricky situations, which could've been avoided by a little thinking and taking the control yourself by leading out.

Earlier I mentioned the influence of stack depth to the profitability of leading out. One factor that you shold consider with your betting is how much money you can get into the pot with different bets. For example, if you check-raise 100bb deep in a singleraised pot, you'll have roughly 3PSB on the turn. This way you're not nearly committed to the pot and have some room to work with on different turn cards. If you lead out, you'll have about 5 times the pot behind. If you get raised, you get to shove allin, in a situation where you still have some fold equity regarding raise size, or you can call, again having a stack-to-pot ratio of 3.

Example no. 2
PLO 100. 6max. You and villain both have 200bb.
A loose-passive villain limps UTG, 2 folds, a good TAG isolated on the button for 4,5bb, SB folds and you call from the big blind holding JT87r. UTG folds.

Flop K96r

You flop a ncie little wrap, but you're out of position. How should you approach the situation? The pot is 10bb. Villain cbets a high percentage of the time. By check-raising you might get villain to fold a hand with showdown value. If villain repops it, it's a tough spot. Most likely you're going to have to call (barring crazy reads about villain bluffing) and folding missed turns. If you lead out and villain calls, you'll probably get the pot with a 2nd or 3rd barrel, or if you hit, you may get some value out of it - especially if villain is holding some marginal hand which hits the second nuts when you hit your nut straight. If villain raises, with these stacks, you can still re-raise if you want to. However, reads of high aggression versus donkbets from villain is needed, and the safer play is to just call. If villain raises again, you're between a rock and a hard place.

Like in multiway pots, also in HU pots you should balance your betting by mixing bluffs, semibluffs, marginal made hands, and monster. This gets your opponents confused and you can catch them off guard. This obviously is mostly needed when playing against competible opponents because bad players rarely think of what you might have when you're doing this and rather just think about what to do with his particular hand. To start with I'd mostly use donkbetting as semibluffs and timely bluffs. When villains slowly notice your ways, you throw in a set to the mix, villain gets confused, doesn't believe you, and falls into the trap.

Paired and Monotone Flops
In heads-up pots paired boards and boards which present a flush possibility are highly dependant of the villain, so it's pretty tough to write too much about it. Still, in general, on paired flops I would donkbet (HU or multiway) the occasional trips/full house, some draws (eg, a flop of 442 with 53xx, flush draws) and sometimes even overpairs. Overpair is probably the most interesting hand of the bunch. Depending on how often villain cbets when missed on a flop like that, if there's a lot of bigger/smaller overpairs in his range and if villain has a habigt of raising donkbets. By the way, the mentioned draw hands are the hands you might want to donk-shove against some players, because donkbetting into a paired board smells bluffy to many good players, so you might get bluff-raise every now and again. Again, balance it with trips and full houses, and you should think about the sizing - what sized bet might induce a rebluff?. Against weak players you may lead out with pretty much anything and happily fold if you get raised, unless you feel that even the bad players have adjusted to your tendencies on these boards, given that you've donked close to every flop like this, which I'm not recommending anyway.

On flush boards good donkbetting hands multiway are big flushes, the nutblocker and sets/3 pair. With flushes you try to build a pot and avoid a situation where the flop gets checked and the turn pairs the board. That costs value against smaller flushes, and makes us vulnerable to possible full houses. With the nutblocker we're going for a straight up 3 barrel bluff, if we believe that villain will fold on the river most of the time, if the nuts don't change. With sets or 3 pairs (maybe even top2?) you can lead out to keep the size of the pot under control. Betting out about half a pot in multiway pot rarely gets a raise. If the board pairs, you're sure to get value from smaller full houses, or possibly flushes, because they might not believe you have it when you've first bet on a monotone flop.

But as mentioned, in these dangerous lookng flops it's highly important to know your villain, and that's usually the more important factor than our own hand, when considering the possibility of a donkbet, although with some hands you can lead out these flops against any type of player.

Don't be the donk, just donk!

So, there you go. A brief review into the world of PLO and donkbetting. Hopefully somebody can get something out of this. The text was written as a stream of conciousness, so it might be a bit messy to read (and the translation might have some problems as well). Maybe you can still squeeze a little something out of it, and if nothing else, at least it should make you think about the game in a different way. I believe that even if you don't agree with me on the points I've mentioned, reading this will still help your game, as it will make you think about the situations and question different options. Now go and try it.

Down to the felt!

-Jaakko "Jabonator" Kiuru

To add a more personal signature,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVeQOpw1x0o
My newest piano cover on YouTube, performing November Rain by Guns N' Roses.

[famalenteyjude7]

The flop texture is such, that it's highly likely it hit the pf-aggressor, so you should probably go for a check-raise. If you hit a bit less than the pot and don't get raised, you're in a very tough situation with most turn cards, because you have almost no information about villains hand and only 2-6 (no diamonds) are fully blank. You'd still have a SPR of 3.