How to deal with "donk bettors" in heads up pots in limit hold 'em

Sometimes you'll be in a limit hold 'em game with a "donk bettor". I'm talking about lousy players with the odd habit of usually firing a bet on every street, regardless of the action on previous streets.

Here's how I found is best to deal with such players, once you get them in heads-up pots (or are playing them heads up):


These games will see greater variance because most pots will be a decent size -- even ones you win with ace or king high.

You need to realize that it's okay to fold sometimes, even if you know they're bluffing. You don't have to win every pot or outplay them every hand.

If you're up against a limit hold 'em donk bettor who does so every time (or almost every time), do the following:

- If you have ace high or better, raise him on the flop. If he still bets into you on the turn, and your hand is ace high or bottom pair, just call down at that point. If you have middle pair or better, raise him again on the turn, and again on the river. If he re-raises, just call, unless he gets into a lot of bluff-reraising, at which point you need to treat him like a maniac, but we'll assume for now that his only overly aggressive behavior comes in the form of donk betting each street regardless of holdings.

- If you have king high, or ace high on a lousy board, just call down the donk bets. Be willing to fold, however, if it gets really bad, such as king high on a 4-suit board, or ace-high with 89TJ on the board.

- If you have a draw, raise him if it's a HUGE draw (one that is above or near 50% to make it), and call down all other draws until you hit. The one exception is an ace-high flush draw, where there is probably value to raise him -- at least on the flop. It is important, however, NOT to overplay most draws, as this guy is not likely to fold. Therefore, if you have 6h8h, and the board is Kh7h2d, don't raise his flop bet. Your hand has zero showdown value at this point, and you aren't buying any free cards with the way he plays.

- DO NOT SLOWPLAY. Since you will be raising him a lot for value -- even on the flop -- this will provide great cover for monsters. It may be tempting to slowplay a flopped straight, flush, set, or boat. Don't do that. Just raise him and keep being willing to re-raise from the moment you flop it. He won't fold.

- Fold if you get into a shitty situation, even with promising-looking preflop hands. For example, if you have QdTd, but the flop comes Ah9s3h, toss it. Yes, your queen high might be good, but you have nowhere to go, and it's not worth continuing. Save your chips for better spots.

- Raise above-average hands pre-flop, even if you're out of position and he limps on the button. For example, if you have Q9o, and he limps on the button, raise him. You will run into frustrating situations where you miss and waste money, but you will get extra out of this when you do hit (or spike something on the turn/river), and you will better disguise your hand from out of position by taking control pre-flop. Try to avoid taking the "check from out of position and see what I flop" line when you get dealt an above-average hand against a player like this.

- Fold total trash on the button pre-flop. Your big edge on a player like this will be playing big cards, especially in position. You don't want to raise 83o, flop nothing, and be facing a donk-bet into you on the flop.

- Do not ever bluff a player like this, aside from typical continuation bets on the flop. If he doesn't fold, you are wasting your money bluffing him.