June 26, 2012 in KingOfDonks by King Of Donks
What Is a Donk?
A “Donk” by definition in poker is a horrible…well let’s be nice…a less skilled poker player. If I were to define a Donk I would take this a step further and say that a Donk is not only a less skilled poker player, but also an extremely lucky poker player. How many times have you seen some knuckle head go all in with nothing but rags only to catch two pair, a flush or even a straight by the river crushing those pocket Kings or Aces you are holding? In short a Donk will play hands that most experienced players would not consider playing.
That being said I love hearing a good poker story and most players have their own bad beat story…let me share one my mine.
I recently played in a HPT Celebrity Knock Out Tournament and had the pleasure of being seated at the table with 2009 WSOP Champ Joe Cada. This was a re-buy tournament and watching Joe play was truly entertaining to say the least, he would go all in every other hand it seemed for the first hour of play. Needless to say Joe re-bought countless times before the end of the first round. I won’t knock his style of play, and I am sure that he is a skilled player, after all it was a re-buy tournament.
By the time the re-buy period had ended and we came back from break I had a decent chip stack and was ready to play. My style of play that day was tight and I was waiting patiently for premium hands. A couple of hands into the round Joe once again decides to shove all in. By now I was used to his style of play and was not surprised by this. When it was my turn to act I look down at my hand and woke up with KA spades. I started to think this is my chance to knock out Joe collect the bounty and double up. After a few moments of thought I decided to put all of my chips in the middle hoping to isolate him heads up. At this point the person to my left and the big blind also go all in making this a monster pot. I suddenly got a feeling in the pit of my stomach and my KA was not going to be good.
We flip our cards over the player to my left shows QQ, the big blind shows AJ and Joe shows 3-4 clubs…I was shocked by this but somehow not surprised given his style of play that day. At this point I was thinking that I was in pretty good shape, I had the person to my left covered and at worst I was in a race with the BB for the side pot. The flop comes 57K rainbow and I was starting to feel pretty good about this hand. So what happens next? You can probably guess, the turn comes a 2, with a 6 on the river giving Joe the straight.
Needless to say Joe scoops all of the chips and the three of us are left going home in disbelief.
Now I too have made my fair share of ridiculous plays only to win with nothing but rags, and I am not claiming to to be a Pro by any stretch of the imagination. Sometimes skill and patience has nothing to do with it, and you win with nothing but Donk luck, but seriously all in pre-flop with 3-4? Ok…nice hand Mr. Cada.
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July 7, 2012 at 9:46 pm
So do you feel Joe is a Donk? Or maybe he just knows that he runs good a lot. I think most of us watched the 2009 WSOP and seen that he does run good.
Either way I enjoyed your post……
August 26, 2012 at 6:46 am
Can’t say exactly what his strategy is since I didn’t see him play in person, but there is a very valid and effective tournament strategy created by David Sklansky in his book “Tournament Poker for Advance Players”. Basically it advocates a style like you described where you either fold or shove all-in pre flop, and your decisions is based on a particular formula which factors in the number of people left to act in front of you, whether anyone raised, and the size of your stack relative to the blinds. Joe very well could have been using that strategy. I use it myself sometimes, but usually only later in the tournament when blinds are very lage and nobody has more than 20xBB
August 31, 2012 at 10:21 am
Hi, Justin.
I’ve been reading your entries and want to commend you on your writing. I’m glad we have teachers that can write!
In this post I was surprised that you seem to imply that Joe was a donk simply by the style he played a rebuy tournament that probably bankroll-wise didn’t mean a lot to him.
I’ve played with Joe in cash games in his dad’s poker room, and I can tell you that he’s a very solid player. I have also been the victim of a bad beat against Joe, but I definitely classify him as a donk.
More importantly, I would ask you to reflect on what your own judgment of the situation says about your own poker game. Good poker is not simply about what hands you choose to play pre-flop. I read your other post about books you recommend, and I would recommend to you Andrew Seidman’s Easy Game. In it he proposes a theory that skill>position>starting hand strength. Granted he’s talking about cash games, but third importance! I really agree with this theory, and I’m really skeptical of people’s understanding of the game when they berate players for what starting hands they choose to play.
Having said all that, there’s no way I’m shoving 34 into a field of players still to act even in a rebuy tournament.
September 1, 2012 at 12:53 pm
Misstyped above, I would NOT classify Joe as a donk, even if I don’t agree with his play there.