Calling station question

[pufferfish]

You find yourself seeing the flop with 2 opponents, one of which is a "calling station".

The flop misses you entirely, but you do have one overcard (King).

Both opponents check to you.

Loose, non-calling station on your left will fold to a bet if he has nothing. Loose, calling station on your right will rarely fold. He will check/call all the way, and he bets as rarely as he folds.

Flop play: Do you bet to get it HU (with the calling station) and a "free" look at the turn?

Say you bet, next player folds, and calling station calls.

The turn misses you, and the calling station checks.

What's your play, check or bet?

Any comments would be appreciated.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

Check.

The calling station won't fold, so there's no chance of winning the pot outright with a bet. And if you both check, you'll get a free card. Since king high ain't exactly the pure nuts here, you're probably going to benefit more from getting the free card than you would by getting your money in the pot with nothing but one lousy overcard.

If the CS tends to fold on the river if he misses, you might try a bluff if you also miss. If he tends to still call the river with anything at all, even crapola like fifth pair, then check and hope king high wins.

[bernie]

good post...

many players make the mistake of trying to bully CS around in a pot...

id bet the flop and check the turn....betting the river if checked to again though may be a safe play....calling stations, at times, like to wait til their almost 100% sure their hand is good before betting. so if he checks twice....there's nothing wrong with throwing a bet in....unless you notice he's in 'call down' mode.....then save the bet unless you have at least some value on the river....

b

[Ray Zee]

puff, consider even betting on the turn. king high may figure to be still the best hand, and you wont have to be making any bad folds on the river.

as to your slowplaying. whenever you slowplay, you need to know the exact reason you are doing it. not just because you hit a good hand. giving free cards or free bets has to be backed by sound judgement as the cost of the whole pot comes into play for a bad decision.

[pufferfish]

Thank you for the replies.

When I started out I cursed calling stations. That was before I realized they had deep pockets. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

I was not discerning enough about who I was in the hand with. Hands like this used to drive me nuts because I couldn't push someone out.

These hands don't drive me nuts anymore, but they are still a source of uncertainty. I appreciate the advice and will keep it in mind as these situations come up.

pf

[SoBeDude]

When I started out I cursed calling stations. That was before I realized they had deep pockets.

The actually just have easy-access pockets. its easy to grab a handful out of them. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

I'd bet the flop as well to get heads up with CS. Unless I hit something I'd probably check the turn as CS won't go away.

-Scott