Calling Station 54, Where Are You?

Calling stations are players who see most or all flops, call a lot with weakness on the turn, and river a lot of strange hands. I love them, though many poker players become very frustrated with these types of players. Many beginners think that they should win a lot of money on hands where they are the favorite, but they overvalue their hands, and so they get snapped off a bunch by these fellows. I'd rather lose a couple of hands to these calling stations, but win a bunch on my really strong hands (like 2 pair or better). Last night I was playing the 11pm tournament at Binion's. It is a good tournament, as the fields are weaker, and finding players to give me their chips is usually not a problem. This young chap started to call any bet pre-flop, and usually called a post-flop bet, no matter how big. I had seen him do some flamboyant raising as well, and in those circumstances, he was usually on a bluff. I called his all-in bet on the river with A-K high, and he deflated after he showed A-8 high. And he was doubling people up by calling bets on the river with A high several times. This became my mission: to play a pot with this guy and flop a monster. I knew I'd get paid off.

In no-limit poker, speculating with lesser hands is often a good thing, especially in later positions after you have seen all of the action ahead of you. Mr. Calling Station (we'll call him CS for short) called in middle position (shocking) and I called from the button with:

5-S, 4-S

I turned to the guy to my left and told him, "I'm hoping to flop a monster here." And I did:

6-H, 3-H, 2-S

The nuts. A made straight. There were two hearts on the board, so I needed to protect my hand, but this was a great situation to get this guy's chips. He promptly bet, and I assessed his stack. I knew he would at least call if I raised, but I didn't want to push just yet. I raised about half of my stack, and he pushed all-in. I instantly called. He flipped over a set:

3-C, 3-S

That gives him 7 outs on the turn and 10 on the river to make him a full house (any pair on the board has me beat by the river). That gives me about 64% chance to win the pot, which is a lot less than I would have hoped, especially seeing how he was paying off people with Ace high previously. Well, the turn and river brought:

T-D, T-H

And I was out of the tournament. The best laid plans...