Play a Hand With the Donks

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Check-raising the flop with top pair bad kicker, in general, seems like an expensive way to play. Does anyone like betting out on the flop?

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Against a donk-min raiser I'm leading the flop most of the time FWIW. Check-call, lead the turn on a less draw heavy board perhaps.

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Thanks for all the responses. It sure is tough to play top pair-bad kicker out of position, so I'm still not positive what to do with the hand. I think the line I chose, while passive, at least avoided building a big pot in an unclear situation.

I folded on the turn. The river was a 10 and it was checked around. The original preflop raiser showed KTs; the button and SB both showed AK (!) for Broadway and split the pot. I bet nobody scoring at home had them on those hands; but it turns out I actually was a huge favorite on the flop!

The dilemma of flop play is that there are so many possible draws out there, and if you want to bet enough to drive all those draws out, then you're going to lose a ton when it turns out you are already behind. I don't know if there's a good answer.

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The dilemma of flop play is that there are so many possible draws out there, and if you want to bet enough to drive all those draws out, then you're going to lose a ton when it turns out you are already behind. I don't know if there's a good answer.

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The only good answer would have come from having an exact read on all three players.

You did what was reasonable by any sort of bayesian analysis. Those kinds of analyses aren't typically going to put all three opponents with a single King and some other card. Probably one, maybe two, but definitely not all three.

Similarly, with all the preflop and flop raising, you almost had to put someone on top or second pair, meaning your some of your outs were likely dead.

Hence my suggestion to push or fold, very black and white decision. FWIW, not that it's any consolation, I would have folded, too.

Hard to believe all three of those die-hards went the whole way. Sounds like you were in a really good game. Hope you got 'em in the end.