The Calling Station
Calls with any pair and any draw. Get paid, don’t bluff.
The Calling Station calls too much and rarely raises or folds. They hate to fold any pair, call with draws whatever the price, and never bluff. Most players lose to them by trying to make them fold. You beat them by getting paid.
In short
- Value-bet thinner: when they check, bet second pair on every street.
- Bet big with strong hands: their pairs and draws call any size.
- Don't bluff: a bet folds only their air. Every pair calls you down.
- Fold one pair to their raise: it's a set or better.
Before the flop
The Station rarely raises first. They raise a short list of strong hands and limp a lot of the rest:
That split tells you a lot:
- A raise is the grid above and nothing else. It's the only time their range is strong.
- A limp is everything else they play, shown below: the smaller pairs, the weaker aces, and a lot of suited and offsuit junk. It never holds a big pair.
If you raise their limp, they never re-raise. They call with the grid below: 66% of their under-the-gun limps and 77% of their button limps fold.
A 3-bet is the grid below. That's under 5% of hands, so believe it.
If you 3-bet them, they 4-bet only the grid below, and call with almost everything else they raised. Only KJo folds: 10% of their raises from the later seats, nothing from under the gun.
When they call your raise, their range is huge: 45% of hands from the big blind against a button open. But it has a ceiling: JJ+ and AQ+ 3-bet, so it holds no big pairs.
After the flop
The Station's habits are simple, and they're the same on every street:
- They bet top pair or better, and only then. Overpairs, two pair, sets, straights and flushes all bet.
- They check everything else. Draws, middle pairs, bottom pairs and nothing all check.
Facing a bet, they:
| Their hand | 1/3 pot | 1/2 or 2/3 pot | Pot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Set, straight or flush | Raise 3x | Raise 3x | Raise 3x |
| Any pair, two pair | Call | Call | Call |
| Any draw, even a gutshot | Call | Call | Call |
| Ace-high | Call | Call on flop and turn with two overcards | Fold |
| Two overcards, backdoor flush draw | Call on flop and turn | Fold | Fold |
| Everything else | Fold | Fold | Fold |
A raise from them is a set or better. Top pair and two pair just call. Any pair calls on every street, even a raise: top pair, second pair, bottom pair, a pocket pair under the board. Draws call on the flop and turn, and missed draws fold the river.
Once less than three pots are left behind, ace-high calls any bet. Too much in the pot to fold, in their eyes. That is the one thing the size of the pot changes: a 3-bet pot plays like a single-raised one.
Those 80 are top pair, two pair and sets; the other 444 check. So a check means no top pair. A bet means top pair or better. A call mostly removes their air, and how much of it depends on your size:
The small bet is called by every pair, straight draw, ace-high and backdoor flush draw; 49 fold. The half-pot or 2/3-pot bet is called by pairs and straight draws, and 236 fold.
On the turn and river the pairs keep calling, and the draws call until they miss. Say they called a 2/3-pot flop bet and a pot-size turn bet:
The 142 are 126 pairs and the 16 combos of AJ, a missed gutshot that calls only because the pot is big next to their stack: 38.5 in the pot and 81 behind, two pots. The 48 that fold are QJ, Q9 and J9.
How to exploit them
- Value-bet thinner. When they check, they don't have top pair, so second pair is often best. Bet it on every street. On K-T-4-7-2 above, QT has 91% equity against the 142 combos that call the river bet.
- Bet big with your strong hands. Pairs and draws call any size, so use the pot button. Only ace-high and air care about size, and they aren't paying you much anyway.
- Don't bluff. A bet folds only their air; every pair calls you down and every draw calls until the river. If you must, bet half pot or more: a 1/3-pot bet gets called by ace-high and backdoor draws too. And don't bluff a big pot at all: once less than three pots are left behind, even ace-high calls.
- Fold to their bets with weak hands. A bet from them is top pair or better, every time, and a raise is a set or better. Let go of one pair when they raise.
- Don't slow-play. They won't bet middle pairs or draws for you, so checking gives free cards and wins nothing.
- Raise their limps with good hands, not junk. 66–80% of their limps fold to a raise, but what calls is pairs, suited aces and broadways that then call you down.
- In your reads, a call barely narrows the range, especially against a small bet. A check deletes every top pair and better, a bet deletes everything else, and a river call is a pair or better (or ace-high against a small bet).
The read kept KQ, KJ, TT and 44, which would have bet, and left out the weaker tens, bottom pairs, gutshots (AJ, Q9, J9) and the open-ender QJ.
What this leak is worth. The Station is the villain who pays you most, and steadily. On Q-7-3-K-8, after calling your flop and turn bets (two-thirds pot and pot), 90 of the 102 combos that check the river call a pot-size bet, every one of them a pair.
What their bet sizes tell you
Nothing about the hand. A third of the pot on a dry board, half the pot otherwise, on every street, with top pair and with a flush alike. Raises are always three times your bet. The bet itself is the tell: top pair or better.