How do you play against very sticky calling stations?

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Mr.Matt

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I'm struggling against players who seem to hate folding postflop.

I've noticed that they often raise their strong hands (2 pair, sets, and sometimes top pair with a good kicker(A,K)), but just call with almost everything else all the way to the river: weak top pairs, second pairs, and draws. (Secound pair may fold to a big size flop/turn bet.

They rarely fold top pair, even with bad kickers, especially on boards with a J, Q, K, or A, even when facing a big bet or a river jam.

My biggest issue is ranging them on later streets and knowing when to give up. When I get to the river with air, it's hard to know whether bluffing makes sense. I can sometimes bluff them off second pair and busted draws, but at the same time, am I just betting into top pairs that they won't fold?

I understand that I should bluff less, focus on thin value bets with decent hands, and jam with my strongest hands.

How do you approach these players on the flop and turn to make better river decisions?

Would love to hear some practical strategies and examples!

I play 0,5/1 Online
 
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I wouldn't shove with a strong hand before the river. You need to make some adjustments: increase your bet and 3bet sizes preflop, on the flop, and on the turn. Use overbets more often, your goal with a strong hand is to ensure that by the time you reach the river, 60% of your opponent's stack is already in the pot (provided you are confident that you are well ahead of their range). Such players are very "sticky" you need to take advantage of that.
 
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Against very sticky calling stations, I prefer a straightforward approach: play your premium pocket pairs (AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT) aggressively and value-bet across all three streets when the board allows it.

Avoid overplaying AK and AQ against players who rarely fold. If you miss the flop, don't automatically keep firing. Calling stations are much more likely to call than fold, so bluffing them is usually a losing strategy.

The key is to extract maximum value when you have a strong hand and avoid wasting chips when you miss.
 
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Mr.Matt said:
I'm struggling against players who seem to hate folding postflop.

I've noticed that they often raise their strong hands (2 pair, sets, and sometimes top pair with a good kicker(A,K)), but just call with almost everything else all the way to the river: weak top pairs, second pairs, and draws. (Secound pair may fold to a big size flop/turn bet.

They rarely fold top pair, even with bad kickers, especially on boards with a J, Q, K, or A, even when facing a big bet or a river jam.

My biggest issue is ranging them on later streets and knowing when to give up. When I get to the river with air, it's hard to know whether bluffing makes sense. I can sometimes bluff them off second pair and busted draws, but at the same time, am I just betting into top pairs that they won't fold?

I understand that I should bluff less, focus on thin value bets with decent hands, and jam with my strongest hands.

How do you approach these players on the flop and turn to make better river decisions?

Would love to hear some practical strategies and examples!

I play 0,5/1 Online
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Vs calling stations we reduce our bluffs so you should have very few air combos that need to bluff rivers. We want to focus on turn play and we should be bluffing turn with outs not air. Check out Charlie Carrels red line strat videos they will help you think more deeply about attacking to get folds on turn and then giving up rivers.

You want to also do some range review preflop vs these stations. What is their range? If they are leaning heavily towards premiums to continue postflop then we know we cannot attack the boards that have AKQJ we have to value bet instead. As well if they are tight ranged we can expect fewer folds so again we are not attacking them with air. We save that for the wide range post flop over folding group.

🤔🤓
 
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Against a pure station I cut bluffs to zero and just widen my value. My rule is to bet when more than half the hands that call are worse than mine. A station calls with so much junk that the bar is easy to clear, so second pair or weak two pair I would normally check back turns into a bet. You lose trying to fold them out, you win getting paid. Size up too, they don't fold anyway.
 
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Mr.Matt said:
I'm struggling against players who seem to hate folding postflop.

I've noticed that they often raise their strong hands (2 pair, sets, and sometimes top pair with a good kicker(A,K)), but just call with almost everything else all the way to the river: weak top pairs, second pairs, and draws. (Secound pair may fold to a big size flop/turn bet.

They rarely fold top pair, even with bad kickers, especially on boards with a J, Q, K, or A, even when facing a big bet or a river jam.

My biggest issue is ranging them on later streets and knowing when to give up. When I get to the river with air, it's hard to know whether bluffing makes sense. I can sometimes bluff them off second pair and busted draws, but at the same time, am I just betting into top pairs that they won't fold?

I understand that I should bluff less, focus on thin value bets with decent hands, and jam with my strongest hands.

How do you approach these players on the flop and turn to make better river decisions?

Would love to hear some practical strategies and examples!

I play 0,5/1 Online
Click to expand...
Generally I would look to take advantage of these players as value players rather than trying to get value through making them fold. If they’re calling with marginal pairs on the flop and turn there isn’t much reason to go for a large river bluff without a strong scare card. It can also be helpful to think about which hands they raised early so you can limit their range going into later streets. I have found it useful to make smaller value bets with good hands and larger bets when you know you have the best hand. Usually at these stakes it’s more profitable to get paid off by calling stations! 😅♠️
 
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Building on what Nameless14 said about the hands they raise: if they only raise two pair, sets and top pair with an A or K kicker, then when one of them raises you, top pair with a weaker kicker is just beat and can go.
 
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I thought calling stations are the easiest types of players to win money from.
Bet bigger for value. If they chase their draws or just call with bottom pair, let them pay more for every next card.
Lets say, againts "average players" you bet 1/3-1/2 pot to keep worse hands calling. Against stations bet pot. If they still keep calling, try overbetting.
Obviously, don't bluff 🙂
 
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Keep it simple: value bet relentlessly and completely cut out the complex bluffs. Size up slightly larger when you have a strong made hand since they'll call anyway, and don't try to push them off middle or bottom pair.
 
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Mr.Matt said:
I'm struggling against players who seem to hate folding postflop.

I've noticed that they often raise their strong hands (2 pair, sets, and sometimes top pair with a good kicker(A,K)), but just call with almost everything else all the way to the river: weak top pairs, second pairs, and draws. (Secound pair may fold to a big size flop/turn bet.

They rarely fold top pair, even with bad kickers, especially on boards with a J, Q, K, or A, even when facing a big bet or a river jam.

My biggest issue is ranging them on later streets and knowing when to give up. When I get to the river with air, it's hard to know whether bluffing makes sense. I can sometimes bluff them off second pair and busted draws, but at the same time, am I just betting into top pairs that they won't fold?

I understand that I should bluff less, focus on thin value bets with decent hands, and jam with my strongest hands.

How do you approach these players on the flop and turn to make better river decisions?

Would love to hear some practical strategies and examples!

I play 0,5/1 Online
Click to expand...
@Mr.Matt I struggle against this type a lot too, and what helped me was to completely stop bluffing them on the river.

If they call with weak top pair and second pair all the way, then bluffing is just burning money. Against these players I only bluff when I have a blocker to their calling range or when the board is really scary for top pair, like 4 to a flush or 4 to a straight. Otherwise I just give up with air.

What works better for me on flop and turn:

1. Bet bigger for value with your strong hands. They won't fold top pair anyway, so don't bet small to keep them in. Bet 75% pot or even pot with 2 pair, sets, and good top pair.

2. Bet thin for value with hands you would normally check. If you have second pair good kicker or top pair weak kicker, you can still get called by worse second pairs and draws. Don't be afraid to bet.

3. Don't try to make them fold second pair on flop/turn with a big bet unless you have a strong draw yourself. Just control the pot and take a free card if you can.

4. On the river, ask one question: "Will worse call, or will better fold?" Against these players, better almost never folds, so if you don't have value, just check and give up.

Since I started doing this, my variance went down a lot. Less bluffing, more value, and let them pay you off with their top pair.
 
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