Art of the Min Raise - Part 10

Aporogies for not posting the rast coupre of days. It has been a rough run at the tables for me recently, and I have been grinding really hard just to kind of stay even. Tonight was a nice sesh, so hopefully that's the start of a nice upswong :)

With all of the preflop min 3-betting ("the donk method of playing AA and KK"), you might think that's the only time donks use the min raise. You would be wrong. Here's one donk that put in the smallest raise possible with his set on this very draw-heavy board and then gave me all his chips when I hit on the turn:

Seat 7: MP1 ($285.25)
Seat 9 (CO): HERO ($201.75)

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to HERO [Ts Qd]
MP1 calls $2
HERO raises to $10 (This is definitely a little loose, but the limper is a donk, and when donks limp, I raise. Often. Even with Q-high unsuited.)
MP1 calls $8

*** FLOP *** [7s 9h Jc]
MP1 checks
HERO bets $18 (This is defintely not a great board to c-bet. Almost all his hands have either a pair or a straight draw or both. But I have a strong draw as well, and I don't think he'll raise a hand like JT, so the bet builds a pot so that if I hit my draw, I can stack him. I'll also fold out 22-66 as well as maybe some A4s type of hands.)
MP1 raises to $36 (Donk alert!! His min raise on this board usually means a pretty strong hand, one that he will stack off with. I guess he wants to raise just a little bit so that I'll call down with some hand like AA that's drawing almost dead? I don't know. But I am more than happy to pay just $18 more to draw to the nuts. I would love it if he had T8 or a set.)
HERO calls $18

*** TURN *** [7s 9h Jc] [8s] (Bingo!!!)
MP1 checks (He's worried, the board looks scary now.)
HERO bets $70 (Bet enough so that he won't be able to resist putting in the rest on the river)
MP1 calls $70 (He's not worried enough to fold)

*** RIVER *** [7s 9h Jc 8s] [2s]
MP1 checks
HERO bets $85.75, and is all in
MP1 calls $85.75 (He can't resist)

*** SHOW DOWN ***
HERO shows [Ts Qd] a straight, Queen high
MP1 mucked [9s 9c] - three of a kind, Nines

The post-flop min-raise has all the same elements of its donkish cousin, the pre-flop min re-raise. First you put in as little money as possible with a very strong hand (in this case, the third nuts), and then give all your money to your opponent when it is obvious you have the worst hand. Now if I could just make nut straights more often....

-BRUECHIPS