There are many reasons for this, but the primary one is that the aggressor has a stronger range that contains all the best hands, like AA, KK, and QQ, which are not in the range of the defending player.įurthermore, the defending player has little reason to come out betting because it is very likely the aggressor will fire out a bet. Why Donk Betting is Not a Good IdeaĪs a general rule of thumb, the player who made the last aggressive action before the flop is the one who should continue with the aggression on the flop. Of course, it is clear that the donk bet can win the pot every once in a while and can be effective, but check-raising on the flop is usually a better option. This bet is called a donk bet, which goes against the game's natural flow, where the OOP player usually checks the flop. The flop comes 9x 7x 3x, and instead of checking, the big blind immediately fires out a bet. So what is a donk bet, and why is it used? In simplest terms, a donk bet is any bet made by a player out of position who was not the pre-flop aggressor in the hand.įor example, imagine you raise to 3x from the button with AK, and the player in the big blind makes the call.