Protecting your hand vs letting an erratic player donk

So you’re a table with several donkey players. You see a flop on the button in a minorly raised pot with KJ. The flop comes K 7 5 rainbow. A player in front of you, who has been betting or calling on almost every hand, bets into the board. The other players fold to you. Now, this table has been very active, giving a lot of action. The player probably has a pair or a straight or flush draw. If you bet, they will probably call, but they’ve been betting very hard with any piece. You can check and they will probably continue to fire hard. They also, however, are so erratic that you can’t be sure what card helps them. A 10 coming off on 4th street could pair their second hole card. You can never really know where you are with this type of player, so should you bet and protect your hand, or let them continue to bluff at you?

I’ve seen players go weak in this type of game when they think they’re good but aren’t sure, trying to just call the player down and pray they don’t hit. It makes more sense, a lot of the time, anyway, to go ahead and bet. A lot of these loose aggressive players will bet out, but with not often raise unless they make a really big hand. So by going ahead and betting a hand, even one you might not bet against a better player, you are able to control the action at least some and not be forced to call whatever number happen to pop into their head.  You can also, then, be given a head’s up in the event that player does turn around a make a crazy raise into you. Betting your hand instead of calling a crazy player is usually a more correct play, though certain timid players seem to be afraid to step up to these erratic donks, and would rather just walk the dog.

There is a better time to let these players continue betting, which is when you make a much more powerful hand than top pair, decent kicker. Flopping a set or a straight against these people will often get you very paid, but it’s also not a moment you need to let go into their whim completely. Scare cards that make any kind of straight possibility should be considered and defended against, because you never know exactly what crazy belly buster draw they might be on.  Give them a little rope, but not enough that they can hang you too.

Playing a table full of erratic players can often make you mad money, but can also break you if you don’t pay much more close attention, warily but strong.