Puzzles
#12
Donk Bet
Intermediate
30bb effective

Why you don’t lead the ace-high flop

The same seat, the same stack, the same chapter as the board where leading was right — and an ace on the flop instead of a six. You flop top pair and the correct play is to do nothing, for reasons the source measures.

  1. Flop

Hand info

Seats
BB vs BTN
Street
Flop
Pot
5.5 bb
Effective stack
27.5 bb
To call
Nothing — you may check

Single raised pot, no ante. Blinds 0.5 / 1.

Pot5.5 BB
HERO ·BB
27.5 BB
UTG
FOLD
HJ
FOLD
CO
FOLD
D
BTN
27.5 BB
SB
FOLD

FLOP · 27.5BB EFFECTIVE

FLOP · FIRST TO ACT

6-max table. Hero is BB with 27.5 big blinds effective. FLOP: Ad, 7c, 6s. FLOP · FIRST TO ACT. Hero holds Ah and 5h.

Hand history

Pre-flop

  • BTNRaises to 2.5 bb
  • SBFolds
  • BBCalls 1.5 bb

Flop

  • A♦ 7♣ 6♠ — pot 5.5 bb

The button opened to 2.5bb, the small blind folded and you called from the big blind with A♥5♥. The flop is A♦ 7♣ 6♠ — rainbow. You have top pair: aces, with a five kicker. You act first into a 5.5bb pot with 27.5bb behind.

What is your action?