Player actyper left a comment in yesterday's post asking proof of his exulted calling station status from the MATH event. While I've always skirted that fine line between poker blog and drunk-stupid-mindless drivel blog, I have to post something about poker on occasion just to keep my union card. Most of the real poker blogger just keep me around for my Dead Money donations. I'm just about the last person in the world to give anything resembling poker advice but this is a subject near and dear. But what the heck, it might be interesting to write about something other than booze, boobs, and booze.
Calling station is a term thrown around all the time. Everyone knows who/what they are but I threw out some lines to other bloggers to get outside my own head for other opinions. Fuel gave me some good lines. A calling station is a player who "plays hands informationally blind", "who REPEATEDLY calls any bet regardless of the pot odds vs the situational odds to make a winning hand", and "positional calling stations (i.e., check calling out of position and flat calling in position.)"
Granted I have very little hand data to back up my knee jerk reaction using this term for actyper, 56 hands is a microscopic data set. Just a little background from those first 56 hands before I was sent to the rail. Of those hands, he raised 3 times, all raises were done pre-flop, none of those were re-raises. There were 11 flat calls both in and of position.
His comment in the post below asked "Did you want me to fold JJ on an all undercard flop?" Below is the dreaded hand history from my bust out. 9 handed I raised it up from UTG, my range is pretty goddamn narrow for raising UTG. 3 callers see a raggedy assed flop. I bet out 500 into a 580 pot and that's where we stand here. actyper is next to act.
Seat 1: GScottW (2,655)
Seat 2: a104l9 (2,005)
Seat 3: buckhoya (4,720)
Seat 4: RecessRampage (2,690)
Seat 5: AlCantHang (2,750)
Seat 6: actyper (5,725)
Seat 7: KillinKegz (1,885)
Seat 8: maf212 (1,570)
Seat 9: willwonka (3,215)
buckhoya posts the small blind of 20
RecessRampage posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to actyper [Jd Jh]
AlCantHang raises to 140
actyper calls 140
KillinKegz calls 140
maf212 folds
willwonka folds
GScottW folds
a104l9 folds
buckhoya folds
RecessRampage calls 100
*** FLOP *** [4c 8h 3s]
RecessRampage checks
AlCantHang bets 500
What's the action?
1. Fold. That would be really weak with JJ on that flop. Never happens.
2. Raise. Especially with the stack size, raising here would be the way to see how good the Jacks are. Raise for information. If I popped it preflop with Slick or Mrs. Slick that pot is shipped. If I re-re-pop you have to give some thought to a bigger pair or a flopped set. Either way you have your information for the rest of the hand.
3. Call. Or the option of flying blind and flat calling with the overpair. The call means you can't know whether you are ahead or behind. You have no information about my strength other than the UTG raise. That is playing "informationally blind". A flat call is playing nothing but the two cards in front of you, not the opponent.
I really wouldn't be writing any of this if options 1 or 2 were used. I got a flat insta-call. His beloved Jack came on the turn and I spend the next 4 hours sweating 80 other players.
Now to his question again "Did you want me to fold JJ on an all undercard flop?". To that I say, absolutely not. In that position I want the JJ to call off every single time. Over 90% of the time I am going to double up my stack. They only thing I would change would be the flaming two outter.
I'd be interested in actyper's take on the hand. What if the turn had been another undercard, do you call my push because you still have an overpair? Did any thought go into my hand at all?
Did I play the hand perfectly? Not at all, but I wasn't asked whether I played correctly, only for clarification on why I labeled actyper as a calling station. I spent the rest of the tournament with all the tables open watching the action. actyper went on to finish 3rd so I most likely have no business I've commenting.
It's not like I called him a donkey or lemur or a big school of fishes. Being a calling station is just one way to play. I don't happen to agree with any parts of it but I'm certainly not trying to insult. I'm not saying that being a calling station is an evil thing either. We all need calling stations at the table else we'd never make any money. I have several friends who are not only calling stations but (shock) min-raisers yet I still have no problem drinking and being social.
As the great and powerful Otis had to say about calling stations-
Calling station is a term thrown around all the time. Everyone knows who/what they are but I threw out some lines to other bloggers to get outside my own head for other opinions. Fuel gave me some good lines. A calling station is a player who "plays hands informationally blind", "who REPEATEDLY calls any bet regardless of the pot odds vs the situational odds to make a winning hand", and "positional calling stations (i.e., check calling out of position and flat calling in position.)"
Granted I have very little hand data to back up my knee jerk reaction using this term for actyper, 56 hands is a microscopic data set. Just a little background from those first 56 hands before I was sent to the rail. Of those hands, he raised 3 times, all raises were done pre-flop, none of those were re-raises. There were 11 flat calls both in and of position.
His comment in the post below asked "Did you want me to fold JJ on an all undercard flop?" Below is the dreaded hand history from my bust out. 9 handed I raised it up from UTG, my range is pretty goddamn narrow for raising UTG. 3 callers see a raggedy assed flop. I bet out 500 into a 580 pot and that's where we stand here. actyper is next to act.
Seat 1: GScottW (2,655)
Seat 2: a104l9 (2,005)
Seat 3: buckhoya (4,720)
Seat 4: RecessRampage (2,690)
Seat 5: AlCantHang (2,750)
Seat 6: actyper (5,725)
Seat 7: KillinKegz (1,885)
Seat 8: maf212 (1,570)
Seat 9: willwonka (3,215)
buckhoya posts the small blind of 20
RecessRampage posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to actyper [Jd Jh]
AlCantHang raises to 140
actyper calls 140
KillinKegz calls 140
maf212 folds
willwonka folds
GScottW folds
a104l9 folds
buckhoya folds
RecessRampage calls 100
*** FLOP *** [4c 8h 3s]
RecessRampage checks
AlCantHang bets 500
What's the action?
1. Fold. That would be really weak with JJ on that flop. Never happens.
2. Raise. Especially with the stack size, raising here would be the way to see how good the Jacks are. Raise for information. If I popped it preflop with Slick or Mrs. Slick that pot is shipped. If I re-re-pop you have to give some thought to a bigger pair or a flopped set. Either way you have your information for the rest of the hand.
3. Call. Or the option of flying blind and flat calling with the overpair. The call means you can't know whether you are ahead or behind. You have no information about my strength other than the UTG raise. That is playing "informationally blind". A flat call is playing nothing but the two cards in front of you, not the opponent.
I really wouldn't be writing any of this if options 1 or 2 were used. I got a flat insta-call. His beloved Jack came on the turn and I spend the next 4 hours sweating 80 other players.
Now to his question again "Did you want me to fold JJ on an all undercard flop?". To that I say, absolutely not. In that position I want the JJ to call off every single time. Over 90% of the time I am going to double up my stack. They only thing I would change would be the flaming two outter.
I'd be interested in actyper's take on the hand. What if the turn had been another undercard, do you call my push because you still have an overpair? Did any thought go into my hand at all?
Did I play the hand perfectly? Not at all, but I wasn't asked whether I played correctly, only for clarification on why I labeled actyper as a calling station. I spent the rest of the tournament with all the tables open watching the action. actyper went on to finish 3rd so I most likely have no business I've commenting.
It's not like I called him a donkey or lemur or a big school of fishes. Being a calling station is just one way to play. I don't happen to agree with any parts of it but I'm certainly not trying to insult. I'm not saying that being a calling station is an evil thing either. We all need calling stations at the table else we'd never make any money. I have several friends who are not only calling stations but (shock) min-raisers yet I still have no problem drinking and being social.
As the great and powerful Otis had to say about calling stations-
"They are people of hope. They are the people who see a flashlight and can believe it is sunshine. They are people who feel a bird's relief and forecast a rainstorm. They are the people who can "put you on" a flush draw when only one of the suit is on the board. They are simultaneously the people we want to kill and the people who pay for the bullets."
posted by AlCantHang at
12:36 PM
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