The calling station is one of the ultimate “love ‘em or hate ‘em” players you can run into at the poker table: either you treat them like an automated teller machine, or they win hand after frustrating hand against you. Regardless of how you run against them in any given session, however, calling stations should be among your most desirable opponents. Why? Because they are weak and predictable, making them easy to game plan against.
Poker experts might use a lot of nicknames and abbreviations for different positions and seats at the poker table. UTG, cutoff, the hijack, and others are all things that the casual player might not understand. Here they are gathered together so we can go around the table and learn each position's nickname when they have one. What is Call Station in Poker. Call Station: A player who finds it difficult/impossible to make laydowns. Play is characterised by a large amount of calling, especially with weak and marginal holdings that should clearly be folded. It should be evident from the definition that calling stations are not good poker players. Beginners tend to be calling stations and table sheriffs so look for them to call bets on all streets with easily beaten hands. For example, calling all the way with a hand like 7-7 on an A-K-T flop or calling large bets with middle pair. NEVER bluff a calling station – they will pay you off enough when you have a hand.
Calling Station In Poker
A calling station is a player who will allow you to control the betting in the hand and will call your bets if he hits any piece of the board or has any sort of draw. He will rarely raise and will rarely fold unless he has absolutely nothing.
The difficult part about playing against a calling station is that he will just not give up on a hand. Bottom pair? That’s worth calling. Inside straight draw? Hey, a straight is a strong hand! As such, you are bound to suffer some suckouts and lose some big pots against a calling station. Your top pair, top kicker may be good against a reasonable player, but you will have a hard time seeing the calling station’s two pair coming when he is holding 9-7 offsuit.
Therefore, do not try to bluff most calling stations. These players do not think about anything besides their own hand. They don’t try to figure out what you have, why you might be betting the way you are betting, or if the pot odds are right for them to make a call. They just see the board and their hole cards, and if any of the cards match on the river, they will likely call your bet. If you are on a pure bluff, they will beat you. Heck, if you didn’t know any better, you would think they made some brilliant read. A bluff is only effective if the other player is willing to fold. Since a calling station will not fold, do not fool around with tricky plays. They will go right over his head like a Dennis Miller joke.
In general, the most effective way to beat a calling station is to play in a very straight-forward manner. When you have a strong hand on the flop, bet it for value. Do not go too crazy with your bet size: a calling station, while not a good player, still does have a brain in his head and will not just call off all of his chips on the flop with nothing. If you think he might be trying to draw to a straight or flush, bet at least the amount of pot to give him incorrect odds to continue in the hand. Obviously, he will draw out on you at times, causing you to lose money, but if you consistently put him in the position to make a bad call, you will siphon more money from him than you lose in the long run.
Assuming you believe you have the best hand, the river is the best time to put in a large overbet, if you ever consider doing so. If the calling station completely missed his draw, he is not going to call any sort of bet, so you will not miss out on an opportunity if you bet a bit excessively. If your opponent has anything, even a weak pair, there is a good chance that he will pay you off. Now, don’t go ballistic and bet $1,000 into a $50 pot – even the worst player won’t come close to calling that without a huge hand. But a $70 or $80 into that $50 pot might work. Of course, you still need to trust your read. If you have seen your opponent fold to large bets, but call more reasonable ones, then tone down the river bet. And, as always, you can’t just assume he has a bad hand every time – think about what cards he may have played and the texture of the board and act accordingly. You know, all that deep poker stuff and what-not.
Calling Station Poker Definition
When all is said and done, while calling stations can make you want to break things when they catch lucky card after lucky card on you, they are very easy players to beat and you should be licking your chops when your “calling station radar” starts beeping. In a nutshell, your strategy against a calling station should be to bet with your strong hands, check with weak holdings, and don’t bluff. Maximize your winnings when you can, minimize your losses (or at least potential losses, as you still might win with a marginal hand) when you don’t. Calling stations lack high level poker processing skills and will not be thinking about what you could possibly have. They have tunnel vision; they see nothing around them except their cards. Stay the course against a calling station and you will reap the rewards.
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