Donk bet

Leading out of position into the previous street's aggressor

Definition

A donk bet is a bet made out of position, first to act, into the player who had the initiative on the previous street — typically the BB who, after defending against an open, bets the flop themselves instead of checking to the aggressor. The name ("donk" = donkey) comes from the era when this line was considered a mark of technical weakness. Solvers rehabilitated the donk bet — but in precise situations: it's only correct on textures that improve the defender's range more than the aggressor's. Low, connected boards (6-5-4, 7-6-3) smash the BB, full of connectors and small cards, far more than the UTG opener, whose range is concentrated in big cards. On those boards, leading small with part of your range is theoretically sound. On high textures (A-K-x, K-Q-x), however, donk betting remains a mistake: they structurally favor the preflop aggressor. In practice, most donk bets you face at low stakes signal a medium hand that "wants to know where it stands" — exploitable information: raising those bets with your aggressive range is often very profitable.