AK vs donk

The donks are usually top pair or middle pair good kicker. Only real draws are T8 and 86 that seem unlikely.

I think calling and raising both have merit. Against a nit we can fold. I probably float flop and try to take it away later or hit an ace, king or spade and raise turn. If she bets turn big we fold, if she bets turn 30 or less I would make it 100 and jam every river.

I probably just flat the flop donk, and look to start a bluff on a lot of turns.

Generally when someone donks they are doing it because they have a hand that cannot stand to check call or check raise - on this board maybe JT/J8s/56s. I would definitely call here and I would call very wide without more info on the villain and what the donk means. Most likely you'll have to turn this hand into a bluff on future streets

Folded to me at this stack size I probably raise smaller preflop. We can't really comfortably raise huge to setup an easy peasy small commitment SPR so I'd rather create a higher SPR but with a good hand in position that wants action. Our raise size creates an SPR of 8, which ain't horrible (especially in position) but it is a little too inbetweenish for my liking.

And I just fold the flop. She doesn't seem to be in the mood to fold given how her night is going so far so good luck stealing on later streets.

GcluelessNLnoobG

That flop donk is almost always one pair or a weak draw in these live pools. You can just raise small for value/denial and take control back. Most players at 1/3 aren’t trapping when they lead into the raiser.

Elaborating on this...

Agree with OD - donks in spots like this are often going to be TP or some other piece of the board that's betting to see where they're at, or for whatever reason they prefer to donk rather than check and feel obligated to call a larger bet.

Here, she's donking for 2/3 pot on a fairly dry and disconnected 9-high board. If she bet smaller, I could see raising sometimes, but less so when she goes 2/3p. When top pair is likely to change on future streets, there's a good chance she'll slow down and check a lot of turn cards, opening up the opportunity to bluff her off her hand.

That said, if she barrels turn, I don't think I'd try to make her fold by raising. We're not deep enough, and this player type tends to be sticky, even with marginal / thin value. They hate folding after defending their BB and flopping a pair.

To put some numbers on this - we're starting $250 eff, and have put $35 into the pot getting to the turn. If she barrels for $30 and we make it $100, that'll leave us $115 to jam into $273. If she donks flop, and then donk-calls our turn raise, she's not going to fold to a less than 1/2 pot river jam anywhere near often enough to make that line +EV.

Alternatively, if she checks turn, we can bet $50 and have $165 left to jam into $173. That line is going to generate more fold equity. If we spike an A or K, we can size down on the river. Instead of jamming, we might bet $90, a tad more than 1/2 pot.

Raising less PF has merit but at the end of the day it's straight up losing value.

Flop is never a fold IP. We don't always have to steal the pot later. We have straight up the best hand sometimes.

When the turn changes the nuts we want to size down. Her naked 1P hands that didn't improve to aces up just got severely downgraded. If we want her to call, we probably can't bet more than 1/3 to 40% pot. I'd probably just bet $75 again, praying she doesn't believe me.

She probably folds to any overcard after telling you (donk) she has a weak nine. The lesson is that many players are looking for a reason to fold.

More and more I understand it’s the run out, not the cards. A good plan is float, see if the turn/river card hits your perceived range, then make villain uncomfortable. The board creates the bluffs.

You get heads up and miss, so does villain most of the time. Claiming the board when it hits your range (scare cards) by applying pressure.

Not looking to quibble, but...when hero raises the flop, he gave her a reason to fold.

He can have all the over-pairs to the board, yet she still donk-called the flop raise, likely indicating she's going to be sticky with top pair on clean run-outs, which is why I said I wouldn't raise flop, I'd just call, and I wouldn't try to get her to fold by raising if she barrels turn.

If she's calling the flop raise with 1P, the raise is just torching when we don't improve or get an over-card we can credibly rep to make her uncomfortable. It could be torching anyway. Like, if she's got A9 or K9 and the turn is an A or K, she's not checking to check-fold, nor is she going to fold top 2P if she barrels and we raise with TPTK.

I'd almost rather the turn is a Q or J and she checks, because I'm not expecting her to show up with Q9 or J9 and check again, but I am expecting her to fold most or all of her 9x if we bet turn and barrel off on a brick river, assuming she doesn't just fold on the turn.

If she called the turn jam, we'd know we were beat before seeing her cards. I wouldn't be thrilled to get it in with her on the turn, only holding TPTK. If we flat call the flop, and then bet $50 when she checks turn, it's a trivial fold if she x/r's.