How do you deal with donk bets?

The counter is to cbet wider for value when he checks. We can also raise a weak jack or sometimes a strong ten for value on either flop or turn. He’s giving us a good price to chase with our KQ AK AQ.

Things get dicey when I bluff-raise a donk, get called, and they donk small again OTT. Kinda hard to do the math on this stuff.

In general we can do a lot of flatting in position against small bets. It’s also good to see a showdown the first time they do this, we will learn a lot regardless of if we see top pair or a total airball or anything in between.

I probably wouldn’t start with a bluff raise if this is the first heads up matchup.

Raise the flop.

I would mostly fold the flop, unless I really wanted to see a showdown (most people donk bet bad ranges, and it should be somewhat easy to see how in a couple of showdowns) .
I understand the desire to call flop, and we are doing okay against some random hands ... but very bad against even T9/T8. And against the hands we are ahead of, we'll be more likely to fold later.
Yeh, it's small, but there are enough people who's donk range is mostly 22/JT here that it can be setting money on fire.

If they do it often enough that A9s is doing well, you'll find out fairly soon and can start calling/bluffing wide then.

But...

Make a mental note and cbet super wide when checked to.

Flop is w/e. Small donks are usually medium value, but the question is if they can ever fold it. I'd likely fold, tbh, though I hate doing do for such a small price. I just don't think this V is likely to fold any J or T to one barrel if we raise, and I don't want to play chicken for a big pot without knowing if he has a fold button. Calling seems the worst option, as we have no pair, no draw.

I find the turn very interesting. I pretty much always raise turn "same bets," but against a middle-aged Persian, I might just take my almost free card here, especially if he's in a track suit and wearing some chunky jewelry. I've found that demographic very hard to bluff, as they often seem to find folding almost emasculating.

AP, I think the river card is fascinating, and I'm tempted to barrel, as his holdings are now more likely to include a T than a J, but again, I'm concerned about the demographic. Still, given that we have almost no SDV (we pretty much beat KQ only), I'd probably take the shot and barrel for about $150.

I would never fold to this flop bet. I think this is very likely to be a weak hand or potentially even an airball. I think raise or call both have merits. Same thing on the turn. I would be much more concerned if he sized up on either street.

As played, I like checking back river. I think you should win here sometimes and I don’t think he folds Tx enough.

In general, the way I deal with donk bets is extremely dependent on their size and range width.

Given the tiny sizes and relatively wide config, I definitely agree with raising abusively, though I think your size is a bit of overkill with a semi-capped range. I would also generally strive to follow through on the river, though offsuit J isn't the most ideal bluffing card and you at least have a prayer of scooping the pot against other whiffed draws, which (going back to the turn) begs the question of whether raising this specific combo was necessary in the first place.

I’ve been running this spot through a solver. It’s tough to model precisely due to incomplete info, but some tendencies still show up.

With strong hands I can raise right away for obvious reasons. But with hands like A9 or random junk, I can flat if I’m confident I can outplay him later.

Basically OTT, any line other than a big bet looks weak.
If he checks, I can apply pressure. If he bets small, I might raise.

Thoughts?

A donk bet without any other reads is a weakly made hand. You don't have to defend against all of them. The time to call is when there is some sort of draw available, whether you have it or not unless you know the villain has a fold button.

I think the hand is played fine, river sucks, lots of rivers we could bomb though. Like if river is a 3♣ and he checks its a more interesting spot imo.

If we know nothing about V, I might flat flop, flat turn, and then check back on the river, just to see what sort of hand he has in this line, so we can use that info in the future.

The problem with blasting off without knowing more about him and his tendencies is now we're playing a guessing game. Is he donking top pair and trapping the river with trips? Was he on a draw that bricked? Does he just have Tx?

It would be different if we had a value hand. In that scenario, I'd probably raise flop small, bomb turn, and try to set up a river jam. But here, we just have ace-high. There's no need to turn our hand into a bluff when he's willing to let us see the river for such an amazing price.

Think about the line we'd take if he just checked in flow to us. We might c-bet 1/2 pot on the flop, size up on the turn, and jam river. If V is just check-calling with Tx or Jx, all we're doing is torching in that line.

Aside from the counter of c-betting wide when he checks, I think we might also consider tightening up on our pre-flop opening range, and playing pot-control by flatting his donks until later streets, unless we actually have a hand.

Read would help. Against a Persian calling station, I’m calling the small flop and turn bets. Against a V with a fold button, I would raise the turn