So I ran pretty bad this week, and while I know for a fact that I was getting pretty "unlucky" it made me stop and look at my game a little more and realize that I may be not playing optimally against calling stations.
Usually I will keep opening 3x at like 10/20, 2.5 at 15/30, and minraing at 20/40+ in general (of course certain reads can change this) but my adjustment is to usually fold more junkish hands and not cbet so often and I may be just not playing these players optimally.
What adjustments do you start making against these players? I know some people will even start limping a lot because they don't want to play biggish pots and want to also play more hands to gain an even bigger edge. Most reg players open a ton of hands on the button and stay aggressive..like 80% I guess so when facing a player like this just how much do you narrow your opening range? How does your cbet frequency change?
I know these questions can be a little hard to answer, basically any tips that may let me know I could be making a mistake would be appreciated..I feel my game is great overall but I do feel like I'm missing something when it comes to playing these calling stations.
Hey Newff,
you are a much better player than I am, but nonetheless I'd like to share my thoughts about how to play calling stations as it is a good exercise for me and also I would like to hear your opinion on my ideas.
As always in poker this is opponent-dependent but here a few general adjustments I make:
If he calls 100% of my preflop raises then I:
1. raise my top 50%
2. limp everything else (all low connecteurs, suited and offsuited)
3. never fold a button (with shorter EFFSTX I fold my bottom end)
4. raise a very tight range from the Big Blind (99+, AK and AQ if he is very passive and doesn't attack me when I don't c-bet)
- By raising my top 50% I make sure that when I hit it will be toppair a lot and I can go for 3 streets of value. Most of those hands contain a highcard with lots of showdownvalue which given their passivity is of great importance
- By limping and not folding I make sure to keep the pot small with my weaker hands and give myself a chance to hit big which means a huge payday
- By being tighter than usual in the Big Blind I don't get myself in a spot where I miss, knowing that my c-bet most likely won't take the pot down
As for postflop play I think it is important to recognize how big of a station your opponent is. Is he calling 100% on the flop but folds to double barrels? Does he call the turn light and folds on the river a lot? Does he only call you down if he connects with the board in some way (I think that is the most common type of stations)? Does he play back at all and with what range?
If he floats the flop 100% but folds on the turn unless he connected then of course you should double barrel a lot. If he calls the turn light too I personally wouldn't triple barrel wide because the one time we're wrong and he calls us with bottom pair we're crippled. In this case I'm really just betting when I connect. I bet toppair and second pair on 3 streets, third pair on 2 streets (depends on the board and the particular opponent, like everything else). I almost NEVER bet or raise draws until I make my flush or straight. They're giving us freecards en masse anyway.
I struggle in situations where I have a hand like Ax, the flop comes 662 or alike and I know I have the best hand most of the time. Should I bet for value (I hear Skates' "Yeah you should!" all the way over the Atlantic ocean :-p)? On more than one street? Or should I keep the pot small and take my showdown value since he is gonna let me to showdown a lot?
I guess that when we think of how to maximize our profit against stations it all comes down to their calling frequencies. If they call close to 100% we only bet with made hands (almost all of them). If they fold sometimes we have to find out on what kind of boards with what possible range, then we can c-bet air sometimes or even double or triple barrel. The big question is if it is necessairy to risk a big portion of our stack to get him of a possible gutshot while he easily could call us on 3 streets with mid or bottom pair (you can say about the loose passive style whatever you want, but it does make handreading a pain in the ass...) , when we can win so easily by simply value betting him to death when we connect.
It is very frustrating to be card-dead/not hitting against a station, but I think that patience pays off huge against these guys.
Hope I made some sense here,
All the best, Martin
P.S. Here the stats of a station I played against last week on FTP. They're not good.
Roi -32% (-33965$) at 25$ over 4226
Hi thanks for the feedback, I will read again more carefully afterwards (at work now).