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I’m really curious about donk post-flop leads these days. It used to always be the sign of a terrible player, but enough players understand basic game flow now that it is has mostly disappeared from the game. This is why it puts you back on your heels so much.
I think donk leads are especially hard to respond to on low-paired flops (like your 7s7h4s one, although I would prefer a rainbow one myself if I was going to consider a donk). This is the exact kind of board that I have sometimes started to donk. I have all the 7s, whereas V does not. And as that board progresses, even overpairs become difficult to continue. I also like this kind of donk lead much more if I am deeper from V perspective. Doing this with 24bb seems like a mistake because a donk lead strategy here is often going to be a multistreet plan against an early position opener.This means that I am in effect starting to commit my whole stack with 24bb.
There is something else very important to think about from villain’s perspective. Is V going to be doing this with nutted hands? Are they really donk leading with 77 or 44 or 74 on the 774 flop? On the 8c9d4c flop, are they really doing this with 89? 88? 99? If so, they’re very likely losing big value over time by not allowing their opponents to play in flow from position. This is why I exclusively like the low paired-board donk lead. It feels like the best approach because you can do it with a lone 7, credibly rep it, but not lose tremendous value by leading it. And you can balance your checking range with full houses.
So why is all that important? What this means is that most opponents on non-paired boards are capping their ranges at one pair (or possible draws). In both the non-paired board examples, #1 and #2, I’m flatting and seeing how they react on the turn. In my experience, if the donk doesn’t work many players will shut down on the turn.
#3 is much more difficult for me. We can’t credibly rep a raise here, unless we’re prepared to raise with hands like AA-88? So I again like a flat, but I’m wary. In the other two examples, if my hand improves, I’m almost always ahead. Here, that could get me in trouble. So I’m much more likely to play this hand passively on turns and rivers and find folds to a big turn bet.
