Calling Stations at 10NL messing up my game

I am running into a situation over and over where I am at a table and there is one, sometimes two calling stations with VP's of 40,50,60 or even higher who limp into every almost every pot, call every raise and then hit monsters on the flop over and over. By limping into every pot they distort the ability to steal blinds and make playing Premium pockets less profitable when the flat call raises and invite lots of callers. (Nothing like raising 3-4 BB UTG with AK or QQ or JJ and getting 4 callers. I ran into a hand where a guy over 100 hands with stats 70/5 called me down to the river with Aces- Never raised once, not preflop or on any street. I had KK on the button and both blinds called, SB with Ace Rag, BB with AQ and of course the flop is AQx. I re-raised a short stacked 35/5 guy with AK suited and he called off his whole stack with A8o and of course hits the 8 on the flop and doubles up. The variance is killing me and what's worse I can play perfect poker for 2 - 3 hours and lose all my session profit because someone decided to call 3 bets OOP with a junk ace and kill my KK or QQ. Any advice for dealing with these guys?

Its variance thats kicking your ass, not 70/5 donks, are you saying that you dont want somebody to call you down to the river with junk? Or get more value out of you when they actually get a monster? If your raises are getting loads of calls then make your raise size bigger.

The guy with the A8, would you rather he folded? The hand with the Ace rag and AQ, would you rather they folded, b/c your a 70% favourite and if you want them to fold you hate money.

Its variance man, learn to deal with it or you havent got a chance in the long term. And thats coming from personal experience!

kk and qq are still only a pair, but mostly just variance

Thanks. I lack perspective -only a little over 20k hands and I just pulled out of a nosedive about 5k hands ago and have been playing much better so I am a little unsure if I have sprung a new leak or just going through a bad run. I did make one adjustment-my opening raise is usually now 5BB + 1 bb for each limper.

You need to raise more, try 10BB.

If they keep calling, keep raising more. If you can open shove and someone will still call, do that.

Try to find tighter tables.

I would suggest you also try to make postflop overbets (like to 1.5-2x pot), because you don't wanna make a big pot preflop against a dude who can be holding anything. Instead, bet bigger when you hit if it helps to drop them off the pot.

It's just variance

Maybe they will call you even in all in with nothing more than a medium pair, however an useful tip would be just to hammer them with huge bets and pot control when you don t get a monster

I just took your advice. Raised 10 bb with KK and got called by a guy with 92/0 and an 89 Call PFR. He bit. I flopped a set of Kings with two rainbow rags. Sadly he folded my 1/4 pot c-bet. 2 hands later I raised again 10 bb UTG with AQs and he FINALLY folded!!! It's awesome how this play isolates your villain and makes a FR table heads up with an awful player.

Going forward this will be my strategy with these guys; play my TAG game, but make my preflop bets bigger and then value bet to the river.

I guess you could do that or you can cbet only when you hit stuff against them

Keep playing only AA, KK raise a big one and they pay you.

My advice. At microstakes do not bluff. Try to get as much value from your maded hands If you miss the flop do not try to bluff calling stations. If they have something they will call. And this is your advantage.
Of course this requires a lot of patience and mixing you game a little. If they see you trying to get value 1 hand in a 100, even a donk becomes suspicious and folds. You should try to control the pot. If they do not raise check untill the river. You will loose the preflop raise . But if you made your hand and the donk has something, that's your payday.

Seeing the flop and starting the postflop play as an heavy favourite will bring less variance in you game. Of course the winnings will not be as high.
But calling stations also let you play more hands than an usual TAG style. Pairs , connectors, AA, KK are all the same for a calling stations. You can bet with anyone and if you hit you can get value out of them.
It only takes one good hand to scare them for a while or better make them tilt.
And here is another thing. Never tilt. If he is lucky after a bad play celebrate and do not tilt. Poker is not about losing or winning a pot. Poker is about wining more on the long run than losing.

And another thing . Never be too arrogant and underestimate you opponents. They may be bad players but if they hit they will punish you.


And the last thing . You cannot do nothing when someone with A8 calls an entire stack and hits the 8. You can only celebrate. Those money that he took from you he will loose to another player that lost money to a donk that will donate them to you. In the end donks will loose all their money and players that do not bother with bad beats will grind.