Traditional poker strategy preaches to us that we need to be aggressive players if we’re to succeed in the game long-term. But how do you play aggressively when you’ve got one or more people calling every bet or raise you make in a game of Texas Hold Em? If it’s a ring game, some people’s answer is to simply leave the table since they don’t want everything being called by somebody else.

However, you’ll find that this move is definitely a mistake since calling stations are some of the easiest online poker players to take money from. And any time you can find soft competition such as this you want to take advantage of it. But before you can start profiting off of the mistakes of calling stations, you must realize their tendencies.

Many players that are calling stations don’t know when the right time to raise is and when the right time to fold is. A common sight to see from these players is them calling a flop of 8-7-3 when they’re only holding a K-3 combo. Sure they’ll have a good hand if another king lands on the board, but a call here is most likely going to be a waste of money.

Likewise, calling stations often fail to get more money in the pot when they have a premium hand since they simply call their opponents in these situations. Not only does this allow multiple players the chance to stay in and hit a big hand on the turn or river, but it also prevents them from having to call a big raise to sweeten the pot.

Once you know the calling stations’ tendencies then it’s time to start taking their money! The first thing you need to be aware of when trying to win their money is to never bluff a calling station because they don’t yield to bluffs anyways. Next, you need to be able to identify who this player(s) is at the table which should be easy since you’ll notice them calling far more hands than anyone else.

When you’ve identified the calling stations then you’ll need to watch for what hands they have been calling with. Some of these players will call anytime they have Ax while others like to call with midrange pairs. Once you know what kind of hands they call with then you can easily beat calling stations by raising and re-raising. Not only will you get their initial bet in the pot, but you might even get them to call some of your raises too!