The Calling Station Poker Strategy

Be careful when playing against calling stations as their wager sizing can vary widely based on mood, whim, and hope – for instance they might call a two-fold pot overbet on the river with second pair because they feel lucky or it’s Tuesday.

Pre-flop betting phase

If your opponents are loose passive players, they will frequently call preflop with subpar hands, forcing you to play weak poker against them and prevents you from reaching optimal expected value positions in poker. Therefore, it is crucial that you play an aggressive, strong game against these opponents.

Preflop betting should always involve raising against these types of opponents in order to prevent others from entering the pot cheaply and thus depriving you of your accumulated value. You can make them pay by increasing the size of your bets on later streets so they have no option but calling with weak hands.

On flops where you would normally bet 20% or 33%, increase the size of your bet to 80% or even the full pot for increased fold equity against loose-passive players who tend to call all-the-way down with poor hands.

Post-flop betting phase

If you are playing against a calling station, it is crucial that you isolate them frequently in order to stop them from piling too many chips into the pot by forcing them to call bets with weak holdings that they will likely never improve upon – this strategy will also increase your EV against them.

First step to identifying a calling station is recognizing their tendencies. This can be accomplished using tracking software or simply watching how they play hands with other players – the hallmarks of calling stations include high VPIP, low PFR, and a low Fold to 3-bet percentage.

When betting for value against a calling station, bet larger bet sizes than is normal for you; this will increase fold equity of your bluffs; for instance on flops where you would typically bet 20%-33% of the pot, increase to 80% to increase fold equity and hit them out faster.

Bluffing

Calling Stations are players that call wildly during betting rounds without developing an effective preflop strategy. These players tend to limp in cheaply, giving other opponents access to enter cheaply into your pot, and taking away significant equity from your stack. Therefore, to combat them effectively you should aim to get into heads-up pots as often as possible with them and raise as often before the flop as you possibly can against them.

Calling Stations are notorious for calling your bluffs with almost anything they come up with, so you should use caution when bluffing against them as they will call almost anything risky you attempt. Instead, bet for value on draw-heavy boards, avoid risky bluffs and taunts against these players as this only proves their strength further and can be exploited later by these types of players. Bluffing against Calling Stations usually backfires; sometimes folding is better than trying to pressure them into making mistakes by trying to bluff them into making mistakes yourself.

Limits

When playing against passive calling stations in a ring game, it’s essential not to become too greedy. These opponents will call any bet, including preflop raises, without taking into consideration its relative size to the pot size – hence you should only place large bets when your hand has the potential of taking down the pot.

Betting small when dealing with mediocre hands and medium when dealing with strong ones will usually work to your advantage, since opponents looking for any reason to call your bets won’t care whether you are betting for value or not. This strategy works particularly well during showdown situations when your opponent may call, enabling you to extract maximum value out of betting for value with monster hands and avoid any traps they might fall into when their equity drops significantly without risking much yourself. Bluffing when your opponent holds weak cards may also help as a strategy – particularly effective when playing low limit games where taking out chunks of equity may help take out large chunks of equity without risking much yourself!