$500 live, early stages.

Kind of tricky spot. He is block betting but he could have Ax and doesn't want a bigger bet because the flop hits our range.

We block some flush draws and there really aren't any other draws except a 54 gutter which I doubt Villain has.

I would typically fold here and be thankful I didn't cbet (which I would have for 3 bb's) if he has an A or any pair really.

I don't hate calling and seeing if we improve on the turn but it gets weird if we hit a K or Q and he bets half pot or larger. Often when people donk the flop they will check the turn when called unless they actually have a monster.

He could also have 22/77/A7/A2 and wants to be raised again.

Its a shame we haven't seen him in similar situations because either he has it or its a bluff. And I'm guessing he does this a lot.

Should be pretty easy call with the king of diamonds and being IP facing less than 25 % cbet. It can be a random broadway, it can be just pocket 88 or 66 trying to bet whatever they feel the hand is worth...

Live, I've often found these donks to be weaker made hands. Think with the Kd this is an easy float and see how he continues on the turn, looking to take it away from him.

Let's call and wait to raise when there's more money in the pot and we have more equity.

Agree often float and take it down on turn when they check. OR I punt it off. lol.

Agree with all responses so far. To play devil's advocate for discussions sake, how outrageous would A) jamming our 21bb over his donk (into a pot of 10.5bb) or B) raising to ~5.5bb with intention of jamming turn that is a diamond/T/J/Q/K be? With the latter we pick up equity and he's unlikely to have limped AT/AJ/AQ/AK so still seems somewhat capped at A8/A9 (which he may fold).

I think population tendency wise, this player type basically never has 22/77/A2s/A7 and is usually weighted towards a weak Ace at best (and thus maybe often folding to us re-aggressing in any manner). I think you all are right with the call being the standard but curious if these alternatives are that outlandish or maybe have some merit. This player type tends to do the whole "bet to see where you're at" thing and might fold most of his range when we take either of these lines.

I’m probably terrible but I think I fold here. The donk lead could be weak but I feel it’s fairly face up and will be a weak Ax a lot of the time against standard play population. We can waste chips at 24bb to start hand. I would just pass on situation and find a better spot with 21 bb left.

I might make it 3.5-4.5x over a limp also in this spot bc 3bb is a tad too small even if stacks are shallow. We want chips in middle when it goes Qxx or Kxx where we can bet small on flop and go bet bet or bet enough to make turn all in for less than pot.

To just one bet, no, but when forced all-in, I do. I coach a lot of students in this player group and I engage frequently with their peers (not to mention play against them in home games) and they tend to bet weak/medium strength hands (and never top of range) in spots like this to "see where they are at". Now I do agree with you in a lot of check/call scenarios- don't try to bluff a rec off top pair (especially if an Ace), but there is a difference between them check/calling down with Ax on Axx as a calling station versus donk leading into us (in a spot they are devoid of top of range hands).

Back to OP hand, if we just float here, the villain will think his Ax is good, whereas if we raise, I believe they'll immediately just put us on AK/AQ/AJ+ (cause that's what they would do with those hands in our spot). They do this sort of "convenient ranging" where they range you on exactly what will justify what their emotional response typically guides them to do.

There's also a huge gap where they will station flops and even turns, but the minute you put a rec player all-in they become very fearful for their "tournament life" (a phrase I hear all too often from these players) and will now range you on everything that beats them even if you or I know we couldn't have those hands with the line we took.

One of the biggest weaknesses I see early on with students is when they apply their own logic and reason to opponent's who are just not thinking the same way as us. The concept of "betting to see where you're at" is something people on this forum know not to do, but it's very common amongst middle aged rec players. While it's trickier to range them using the same logic you'd use to range a reg or professional opponent, you can still range them but maybe focus more on tendencies/instinct/emotion.

The last time I recall facing a live spot with a "see where you're at" donk like this, the guy had T8 on an AT4 board.

(I jammed the flop with A4 and he called. Not sure what this indicates about how you might want to play the hand.)

It's an interesting spot. I wonder if there's more merit to just raising small flop, because that almost certainly clears out a lot of the "see where I'm at" hands that we're behind. It also lets us get away from this hand if villain rips. The nice thing about the clicky small raise is that we can do it with our best Ax as well. (and sometimes induce spaz plays)

If we just get called we can jam a lot of turns and villain is in jail with a range of Ax that's almost always worse than ours, and they will very likely fold a good amount of Ax on the turn.

think its a clear call on the flop with expectation he'll show up with a nonzero amount of "see where I'm at's" (88, 76s)

you'll get him off aces, I've seen guys in these things are starting to find folds (On turns! Which are not like 4 to a flush and **** like that!) with overpais. So when a diamond peels in particular here, you should expect to have him hating life often.

He may even overfold aces on the right runout. What if he doesn't properly allocate calling frequency to his AxYd?

Ad on the board is pretty important IMO and interested myself if your combo is way higher EV on Ad7d2h compared to Ah7d2d

Raising flop if deeper is cool too I think. But here I wanna exploit with as large a sizing as possible and preferably on the river so I think it;s a pure call with plan to very often to either float 4bb and jam tons of rivers or x turn and then jam river (particularly like the latter when the diamond peels on the turn)

For me, I am using a mixed strategy. If don't know anything about this player, I am usually peeling. If I view them as tight, OMC (I fold), if I have seen them play loose and lead already, then I raise and shutdown if the turn is a brick (I am barreling turn if it's a diamond).