[W. Deranged]

Adam,

I think the important thing here is to read the meaning of villain's turn donk-bet. There are a couple of possibilities:

1. Villain's turn donk-bet is free-card-blocking. Villain is probably good enough to realize that, with the spades there, you might be playing very aggressively on some kind of big draw, and really doesn't want to let the turn check through. Similarly, villain could be waiting to see a safe turn card before pressuring ahead.

This is the most likely reason in my opinion. (AA, AQ, and to a lesser degree TT and JJ, are the most likely hands using this line).

2. Villain is playing a creative flop-check-raise, turn-bet-three-bet line with a monster hand like QQ.

This is possible, but in my opinion this is a pretty creative, pretty expert line that even most tags wouldn't think of. It would require a very sound read on you, and resisting the urge to check-raise the turn. I think far more players with QQ would either check-raise the turn after the flop three-bet, or simply cap and lead.

A couple of other thoughts:

1. I don't particularly think a flop check-raise is indicative of JJ or TT, but I also don't think those hands are totally unlikely to check-raise either. This is where your table image would be nice to know. Villain may think you're a bit aggro or something, and may decide he wants to play his mid pocket pairs pretty fast and more or less commit to seeing showdown. Then again, he could think you're a rock and only play on with AA or QQ. Table image is important.

I don't know. This is a tough hand. I think raising the turn is fine, but I don't really like calling down a three-bet and a river bet. For that reason, I almost prefer calling the turn and raising the river, because I find it easier to fold to a three-bet there.