DECISION POINT: You are in a big field multi-table Tournament where blinds are 500/1,000 with a 1,000 big blind ante and are dealt A♥A♣ on the Button. An Early Position player, MP2 player, and the Cutoff all limp and you raise to 2,500. The Big Blind calls and everyone else folds. Your opponent bets 3,000 on the 9♠8♦5♥ flop and action is on you. What do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: We are dealt AhAc in the middle stages of a big field multi-table tournament with 500/1,000 blinds and a 1,000 big blind ante. We are deepstacked with 100BBs while most of the table is in the 40-50BB range except the Big Blind, who also has nearly 100BBs. Three players in front of us, UTG+1, MP2, and the Cutoff, all limp into the pot.

It is crucial to raise an appropriate amount to thin the field and put our opponent to a meaningful decision in this scenario. By default, this means raising whatever the standard amount is (likely 2.5 times the big blind or 2,500 here) and adding 1 big blind for each limper onto the total raise amount. In this spot that would be a raise to 5,500. However, in the moment we don’t account for the limpers and only raise to 2,500 and thankfully only the Big Blind calls.

The flop is 9s8d5h and the Big Blind leads out for 3,000. In poker terms this is called a “donk” bet or a probe bet. Highly skilled players can use donk bets to balance their range to incorporate a mix of strong hands as well as hands that need protection, and some semi-bluffs.

From most recreational players a donk bet represents a medium strength hand where the Big Blind is trying to control the size of the pot by leading out. With a 9,500 chip pot and over 90,000 chips behind we have a stack to pot ratio (SPR) of over 10. At this stack depth getting all-in with one pair requires multiple aggressive actions to the point where it is unlikely to be the best hand at showdown as ranges narrow significantly with each aggressive action taken in a given hand.

If the stacks were significantly shorter with an SPR of 6 or less, then raising would be a very valid option. When stacks are more shallow we benefit by both protecting our hand from some of the draws that are on the board, and building some value against hands such as K9s/Q9s/J9s/T9s/66/77 that are within our opponent’s calling range.

With effective stacks of over 90BBs to the flop, raising this probe bet only to face a 4-bet and potentially playing for stacks is just brutal. Taking a passive line by calling here allows us to keep the Big Blind’s hand range wide so that they can continue to fire future streets with a variety of hands we have dominated.

Calling is the best play.