How to beat calling stations?

[kfactorx]

There are a few different ways to play with calling stations, but I think the safest (not necessarily most profitable) would have to be ONLY betting when you hit. Although this might not get as much money as other strategies, it will almost surely make you money (and surely, a good amount too).

[bohus04]

value bet them to death,
i think checking turn is bad and im definitly betting it even thought a bit less

[Esection]

if they call everything, only bet when you want them to call.

[DoGMaTiCMD]

tighten up bro. It sucks to play micro, as it often doesnt prepare you for a nl100/200 game.

Use pot control for your mediocre hands and take advantage of their bad play when you have a very good hand.

I find just really thinking about what you have to gain and lose, and reallly analysing the situation with the time you have to do so will make your winrate and skill really jump.

[miw210]

Value bet when you have it

[AKQJ10]

I don't think you got my point. If the calling station has Q9 on a JT7r flop, you don't have six outs. You have an immense number of "outs" (all 33 blanks or aces, but you need two of them, or to improve with something like an A - 9 board). If you knew what your opponent had, you would decide to protect ace-high and charge Q9 a huge price to draw out.

In that case your bet with AK isn't in hopes that Q9 will fold; it's that Q9 will pay to draw out and miss.

In practice, heads-up you have no idea whether you're against 44 or Q9, so you sometimes make a bet that's part semibluff (where you do have a six-outer) and part protective value bet. The semibluff portion is worthless against a CS, so you will CB less often, but you will sometimes still wish to protect your nut ace-high.

Just assuming AK is always behind and drawing to six outs if it doesn't pair the flop is the wrong way to think about AK, particularly heads-up.

[raistlinx]

No I get your point, I just don't agree with it. You are assuming he is on a draw. While one possibility is that he is drawing (and I agree with you if we know he is) there are many hands he could have with a J or a T in it.

If you have AK and don't hit the flop you don't have a hand to protect you have a semi-bluff and we have already agreed that is not a smart play against calling stations.

[AKQJ10]

The point isn't that you know he's on a draw; the point is that you don't know, and it's dubious to always passively check it down and give him all the free cards he desires in the assumption that he's already paired.

[raistlinx]

Against a normal player yes, but not against a calling station. You will essentially be bluffing off your chips on three streets to find out if he was on a draw or not.

[Triggerle]

I have recently (15k hands ago) begun to adapt a style against calling stations that involves letting them run me over, sometimes for hours, while trying to lose the least and then make it all back and then some once I have a hand.

Sure it is painful to watch a complete retard amass a huge stack by being lucky and me being passive but I find it much more painful to give my money away aggressively when there is zero fold equity.

The important thing is to only do this to the calling stations and at the same time play your normal game against the TAGs at the table.