How do you respond to passive players and calling-stations

I always think of the best ways to exploit overpaying players, and I have put into practice 3 simple concepts, which have worked for me, and can probably work for you.


1 - Increase the range of continuation bet on the turn.

2 - Increase the size of bets.

3 - Increase the value range.



we need to play the post flop, take the river to the game, because these players who pay a lot when they get on the river most of the time he has a weak kick, he does not have good cards to pay a heavy showdow bet.
how do you react against it, what can I improve?

Got some hand of value? BET BET BET BET BET!!
You dont? NO BLUFS!
You have more edge?? Increase your range!
And be happy

bet my value hands large or stations, and play aggressive towards passive type players, but slow down when a passive player calls your bets and they often mask there hand strength unknowingly by playing passively

i increase the size, only if i have a good hand

Against calling stations i i try to play aggressive preflop...against agro morons i try to play more postflop...just my opinion


I dont like having to pay 5-6+ BB to see one flop...unless i got some nuts

Pretty much already commented what I do. If I have a table dynamic that is very limpy, I usually change my open in tournament from 2.2x to 4x or certain instances 5x and cash from (my personal open of 5x to 10x) against passive players I over C-bet.

Definitely, take advantage of their calls and upping the bets like you mentioned on the turn and river. I have experienced a lot of players like this and they normally fall under the protocol.

One thing not to do is to continue betting into someone who has an unlimited bankroll and is not scared of losing money.

I try to play aggressively with my good hands and a wider range of cards against those players , I try to see how far they go with their calls and their passive behaviour , so accordingly I play more or less hands , more or less aggressively on the turn or even on the river . But if they call on strange boards I am very carefully , I still remember my K6s vs his 102os on 22JK6 , yes , he even played 102 of suit Eventually , got reraised and I called , big pot ,he got his money (from previous passive plays ) back

Bigger bets is definitely helpful. Keep increasing the bet size until they start folding, then decrease it back to whatever they were calling before. That is called maximum value!

make your bets bigger ,play less speculative hands with them , only play monsters ,and trap the shit out of them success will follow!

If they're a calling station it's simple, bet when you have it and fold when you don't. Go for bigger sizing because if they're calling may as well get extra value.

sure no bluffs doesn't work!

Punishing them with 3/4 cbets and a big river overbet hehe

I guess I'm one of the calling stations..mainly in the cash games at the micro level. I let the more aggressive players with the bigger stacks take the lead while I ride in on a decent hand that is either made or can improve. Sometimes I bet a small pair hard and other times I limp hoping to make a monster. It all depends on the table play. When playing at aggressive tables you have to pay to play ... no calling station will last.
So, when I play passively or mainly call it's because I can. When I take an aggressive stance towards the call stations I will always play position and will play marginal hands and bluff a lot to steal blinds and to push them off their hand.

I consider myself at the moment a loose passive player at the beginning of the tournament, I do not play with any two cards, but I also do not miss the chance to play a 56s, I limp in most of the time with the intention of hitting the board, if do not hit anything I fold without pity. The problem of being aggressive against a loose player is simply if he hits the board in case he sets the game over for you.

I think it's best to play fit or fold vs calling station types, just make a hand and take them to value town. bluffing with air vs these types of players will usually lead to wasted time and money .

Passive players I will play differently depending on how tight they are. If they are too tight then ramping up the turn agression can be a successful strat but if they are too sticky post you can get into situation like I described above.

Micros are beaten mostly by showing down the best hand and getn as much value as possible !

Yup, you can't actually make players fold. All you can do is make it more expensive.

I have a friend who will always limp in EP with speculative hands because he expects the button to raise the action.

And he doesn't know if his pocket 66 are good so he calls everything down.

Charging calling stations an extra premium should be profitable.

Good luck !