Donk Bet, what's it mean?

This size donk bet on this board usually indicates a weak Q that is betting "to see where he's at".

Without a call from UTG1, I probably auto raise to take it down now. If UTG1 calls, I probably still raise, but now trying to get HU with UTG1 and position.

Generally this small size donk multi-way is going to be a weak top pair, a strong middle pair, or some sort of draw hoping to set a cheap price to make his hand. Occasionally it's a hand like A5.

I used to raise these bets on principle, but I think it makes more sense to raise as a bluff than to raise with value. I'd rather raise Q7s with no BDFD than KQs.

V will either check turn or barrel, but either way, we can see the obvious draws that would complete. If the turn is a K or 8, or another 9 or 5, and he blasts off, beware. I'd be checking back those cards if he checks.

How I'd play the flop depends on what the other players do. If they fold to us, I will probably call and look to bet or raise most turns. If they call, then I'd probably raise flop with value and bluffs.

If the donk was bigger, I'd say it's more likely to be thick value, 2P+, but generally we'd only see that on very dynamic flops. It's one of the few theoretically correct plays rec-fish tend to intuitively get right.

Without reads, pretty much impossible to decipher what this donk could possibly mean. But in general, it probably doesn't matter too much; what matters more are what our options are and whether there is a clear choice (which I think there is).

I'm cool with preflop.

The SPR is 4.5, we're 4ways, we gave each of our opponents awesome IO of 23+:1 preflop, and all we haz is TP2K. So we should not be attempting to work towards getting stacks in, and a raise easily gets us moving down that road, so we shouldn't raise. Meanwhile we're getting awesome immediate odds of 5:1 to see a turn and re-evaluate card/action in position, so we shouldn't fold. Which only leaves one clear action, imo.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Interesting, so I make it $40, folds around to sb he calls, Turn 2d now I pickup the flush draw, action goes check/check river 9s

Board Qs9h5d2d9d pot $140 SB CHECKS, what do we do?

As played, I think I also check back the turn as any bet sets up a commitment spot (which I'm attempting to avoid).

On the river I would bet a smallish $50 targeting QJ/QT.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Yeah I made 4 or 5 mistakes in this hand I feel like looking back on it. He checks to me, I jam river, he snap calls with Q9o. I think his donk bet into 3 other people maybe should've been my sign that he's super strong? I was pretty frustrated that I viewed it as weakness. I usually always raise donk bets unless I really want them to stay around, so in my mind this was a standard raise on the flop. Not sure if this is how the general pop would play this hand and I just ran into the one guy that donk bets 1/4 pot top two on a dry board then checks his full house on the river knowing I'm going to bet...

It would make more sense to bet the turn if villain has a weaker queen because hands like AQo, 99 that beat us wouldn't take this line. If a straight or flush completing card comes on the river and we face a lead we just have an easy fold IMO. I would agree that we should bet/fold the river. For some reason I've seen second pair here show up before so I'd be worried about getting check raised.

I would prefer to bet the turn and then check back the river, but as played I don't mind checking back the river since he's not calling the flop raise with lower queens after donking out 4 ways and calling a raise. I would just check it back, announce "queen" and watch him quickly table AQ, 55 or 99. If that's the case, we lost the minimum.

I didn't realize he had the smaller effective stack, which again makes any postflop aggro play from us even more meh as stacks can so easily be put at risk.

In general, we don't want to play for stacks with just one pear, especially in multiway pots; the exception would be ~HU when we've committed like 10%+ of stacks preflop. So our overriding plan with TP hands in these spots should be to not play for stacks, which means doing some checking instead of betting / calling instead of raising / betting smaller when we do bet.

GcluelessNLnoobG

The donk bet might indicate weakness and often it does, but the donk bet followed by a call or 3bet indicates strength posing as weakness, or sometimes a strong draw aiming for confusion.
I like the flop raise but do not see much point in the river jam...the 9d improved some of his donk hands and makes your bet look stronger so you don't often get called light

This, x1000. I've given up trying to decide what a certain play is in isolation based off some population reads that are decidedly iffy. Some players donk with extreme strength. Others with medium strength. Others with vulnerable made hands. Others with draws. Others with pretty much anything because they feel they have range advantage and have a right to donk. Trying to have the Second Sight based on sizing is asking for trouble.

I prefer a small raise just to give us more options on the turn (which will often = a check back). Particularly to show someone with a draw they can't set their own price. Or just call down.

On the river as played, I think a small bet is in order but I wouldn't hate another check back.

Edit...I hadn't taken in it was 4 way, so call flop is wiser.

As others said, it's hard to know sometimes, without any reads on our opponents.

There are good reasons to donk-bet certain boards in certain situations, but it's impossible to know if our opponents understand the logic. I generally assume that competent opponents know when and why to donk, and rec-fish are mostly betting weak value or their draws, when they take a small size, and betting 2P+ when they go big on wet boards.

Like, Q95rb is a pretty dry board texture. Most opponents would likely go for a check-raise with top 2 on that board, or just check-call flop and either donk turn or go for a delayed check-raise. If they flopped bottom set on a wet board, they'll donk more often, but they'll take a larger size.

Your opponent took a strange line. If he was donking flop because he was afraid the flop would check through, and then the turn does check through, I'd think he'd lead river for a large size, when he makes a boat and the flush draw comes in. He has no reason to think you'll bet river after checking back turn. I'd have bet Q9 for value in his spot.

Your flop raise was a little too aggro, because it'll mostly fold out worse hands. Once he calls, even after the turn goes check-check, I wouldn't jam the river. I'd be betting really small, to get called by QX or trip 9's. When we jam, he can really only call with a flush or a boat, and he's not going to have very many flushes when he donks the flop.

If V is a reg, make a mental note about this hand. He actually donk-bet correctly, in a spot that wasn't entirely obvious.

OP did you river a flush? You say you picked up a flush draw on turn but then you list the river as both the 9s and the 9d.

I like the flop raise as I think the small flop bet usually shows weakness. I might even raise it smaller to $35, because I think villain would feel dumb to fold a worse queen or JT, and maybe even a 9 for only $20 more.

Then I would bet fairly small on the turn to get calls from some of the same hands, and evaluate what to do on the river.

I’m also confused about the river card.

You ran into a guy that is terrible and is capable of playing monsters super passively. Unfortunately, because some villains can take bizarre lines they can sometimes be really tricky. It’s nothing to be too upset about.

He called, bet small, called, checked, and checked. So of course villain doesn’t look strong.

I still think a lot of times the donk bet is seeing where he is at. Against 3 people he will be unsure of where he is at, so he makes a small bet. Someone with a weak queen isn’t normally going to bet large into 3 people.

I didn't realize you posted the results just before my post, results aren't really allowed for 24hrs or you'll just end up getting results oriented answers that dont really help you too much (kinda like when someone at your table makes a horrible call but they win the hand with a one outer and everyone says "great call").

When players donk out on flops into 3 other players from OOP in a pot that was rasied to 5x pre, they're not usually testing the waters with bottom pair and the weaker the players are they could even be inticing someone to riase them up so I woulda just proceeded with extreme caution throughout the rest of the hand (as I aforementioned).

There are some good answers already (see gobbledygeek and moxterite) ... but I would add that the question is approaching the problem from the wrong angle.
The donk itself can mean different things about the betting range, but most consistently it means there's a bad checking range. If they are donking draws, then they can't x/r as a bluff and their x/c range is weak on board changing turns. If they are donking monsters, they can't x/r for value. If they are donking medium strength hands then they'll have a weak x/c range on bricks.
Which might look like the same kind of guessing game, except pretty much all of those things mean you can cbet more (often way more) and fire second barrels more often.

GG is the goat, but if I raised flop I much prefer bet turn than bet river.
Assume he just b/c everything (mid strength hands, monsters and draws) on the turn Qx can happily x/c again, as can draws, so we get a bunch of value from worse. On the river, bad Qx is only beating airball bluffs and draws have 0% equity as calls. V's range also likes the 9 more than we do (we only have FHes, he can have 9x).
Also if V is capable we hate a x/r on the river but even if we auto call it off we have equity vs. anything on the turn.

yes I made the flush on the river, sorry for confusion.