e Casino Geek

I’ve decided to branch into poker again as I have been on a kick recently playing at the different online poker sites. If you have ever played online Texas Holdem, you probably know that it can both be exhilarating and very aggravating.

There are some unusual betting lines that you need to be aware of in no-limit Texas Holdem poker in order to start winning more often and we will take a look at a few here.

One such bet is what is called the “donk bet”. This is where a player bets into the pre-flop raiser.

Example of a Donk Bet

For example, the hands have been folded around to a player on the button who raises and the big blind calls with the full intention of betting out when the flop comes no matter what cards show up.

Notice here that we have not mentioned the cards as of yet. This is because the button player intended to raise regardless of their hand and the big blind intended to call and then lead out on the flop regardless of their hand.

The button is using the mathematics of the situation and the fact that he has position and is up against a likely weak hand. The big blind understands this and tries to take away the initiative from this player by betting out and forcing the player to hit the flop.

Planning for Donk Bettors

If you are the pre-flop raiser then you can have a set plan for facing donk bets. Firstly you can fold all hands that can be constituted as fresh air.

I would fold fresh air hands and call with marginal hands and also raise with strong hands. There is nothing revolutionary about this play and many players react badly to donk bets.

Personally I like to have some equity in the hand when I play back and the only way that I will break that is if the donk bettors are doing this all the time. So the system then is straight forward and it is to fold all fresh air type hands and to call with hands that can be defined as marginal and to raise with strong hands.

The basic reason why you are doing this is because your opponent is betting and the act of betting is representing a hand. So folding fresh air sort of counter balances the time when your opponents are actually betting with something and calling with marginal hands kind of counter balances when they are firing with air.

Other Tactics to Use

Raising with strong hands by sheer definition is pretty self explanatory. Another unusual betting line is min-raising. This is often a tactic used by players to try and exert pressure without it costing too much.

Often these sorts of bets can be made to mimic value raises but just as often they are also cheap attempts to try and get an opponent off a weak hand or fresh air.

So here as well I would be looking to have a plan and I would definitely raise my strong hands or I may even call and let my opponent have the lead.

I would fold fresh air as usual but the ambiguity that is inherent within the bet will lead me to play on with marginal hands and re-raise with my draws that have decent equity and fold equity. So the way that I play against min-raises is similar to the way that I play against donk bets.

About the New Poker Category

I have made a couple of changes today with eCasinoGeek. I’m trying to better organize the posts into the three main categories of Casinos, Online Casinos and Gambling.

I have created a couple of subcategories, bingo and poker, for the overall gambling topic. That way the non-casino topics are grouped together. In addition to bingo and poker, this would also including any sports betting and other gambling games.

Soon, I will being creating posts for more poker topics like this one and this previous post on a poker tournament.