Playing Against Calling Stations Online

[mych36 0]

Hello all,I was just wondering what your strategies are against the thousands of calling stations you will see online at the lower levels or in freerolls.What I usually do is sit back and wait till I have a hand and just value bet them to death. However, sometimes they actually have me beat and just call my bets and put in a big raise on the river.For example:you have A K and you make a standard 3x raise and get called by the calling station in the big blind (you have about even stack sizes of about 90 big blinds)The flop comes:K 10 5 Giving you top pairOf course its checked to you and your oppentent calls a bet of about 3/4 the potThe turn comes the 6 The calling station checks to you like he always does. Should you bet if you know he would check a flush, straight, 2 pair, or a set?The problem is this player would probably play anything this same exact way, should you keep value betting or should you check to keep the pot small and see what develops on the river since you have position? What would you guys do?

[Biff Goods 0]

What's up with these posts lately? At least you gave reasonable information. Ok in the hand given I check behind on turn and and probably checking behind on river as well and definitely folding to anything he bets. The reason being with the delivery of the spade on the turn you have just entered into what we call a "marginal situation." When we are in those we like to keep the pot small because usually we are way ahead or way behind. Now if the turn came a diamond instead of a spade I would keep betting because we get a lot of value from smaller aces/flush draws and if he does have two pair we have a back up plan. As far as how to "generally" play against this opponent...you already answered your question. Show them nuts. The problem is when you get into situations where you aren't really sure you shouldn't be putting a lot of money in because their hand range is so huge.

[HighwayStar 8]

Value bet. Value bet. Value bet. It depends on the player but I think bet/folding every street from now on is good vs a truly passive station. Check back some rivers for sure but you should not be missing value with this strength of hand in general.With shallower stacks, and against trickier/more aggressive villains, the bet flop check back turn - > bet river when checked to/call a bet (on most rivers) - is pretty sexy. I'd say I'll probably take this line vs about 70% of people anyway.

[HighwayStar 8]

Ok in the hand given I check behind on turn and and probably checking behind on river as well and definitely folding to anything he bets.

I think if you're taking this line and folding on anything but a spade river you're making a pretty big mistake and folding wayy too often. When you take this line probably 90% of people will donk into you with almost their entire range on the river, regardless of how stationy/passive they might be. It's the "oh he checked, I'd better bet!" mentality that so so many fish have.I think checking back on those rivers too is really weak. You have the nuts! Bet it. The mostly likely stuff for him to check would be stuff he wants to showdown, like 3rd pair.edit - Just as a random extra point because I'm bored and this popped into my head. If you get to this turn and can't decide to bet or check, bet if you haven't got a spade and check if you have.This is good becausea) it completely randomizes your action in your opponents eyes- great for balance (although this concept is completely unneccessary at most levels). Essentially, it's good for "mixing up" your play if you take 2 lines and show up with basically the same hand.b ) this way if you check back you're not really worried about a spade hitting the river and can showdown more easily - it's good to showdown.c) you get value out of picked flush drawsd) if you make the nut flush on the river you will often be able to get in a raise when he bets.

[rrumsey 0]

stations tend to call with almost any hand regardless of texture, so vbet, vbet, vbet. also against stations bet a little bigger usually they will probably call, why bc they are a,... station. just make hands and print money. dont go insane with marginal hands but make solid hands and get 3 streets of value all day