Calling stations with the best hand

I play smaller stakes aggressively and am a winning player. One thing that hurts my profit is when some one has me beat and only calls my raises. For example if I have A-J (which I obviously led out with) and am against A-k with an A on the board I will raise. If the board is not coordinated so I have no reason to suspect a sandbag, I generally keep pushing.

Here and there, I am beat by the passive caller after pumping in 2.5 more big bets. Am I playing right? I think so, but I am wondering if there is anything else I can do to get a passive player to tell me more about his or her hand?

[rmarotti]

Ask them to show you their hand?

[onegymrat]

Hi morph,

I think your concern is miniscule and you should not fret over it so much. You are forgetting the flip side of this coin, you are losing less to these players. Would you rather play against them, or someone who reraises you with an ace high board when you have AJ, and you call him down? You are forgetting ALL the times they call you down and give you profit. Please continue betting your strong hands.

I agree that you are worrying too much about this. If you have no read on the player in question, then your play is correct. That is all that matters here. What you are failing to realize is that this player is playing extremely weak, and you will extract way more money out of him generally than you will lose to this specific type of situation. Sometimes, you will lose with your AJ to a weak passive player's AK, but that is just how it works. There is not much you can do about it besides playing weak passive yourself, and being scared to raise your good hands out of fear that you may be beaten. Then you will be playing like this guy, and you will become a losing player as well. Even good players lose hands.

[ErrantNight]

ugh. go read a book.

yes, there is. but these are your most profitable opponents. learn how to beat them. start by embracing the times they call down with a worse ace and catch aces up on the river. its what inspires them to keep making crappy calls.

next, give them opportunities to fold.

[BigBrother]

Yeah, you can teach them to recognize that you like your hand and pop you on the river so you lose even more.

These players are paying you off with Ace-rag far more than they are 'sucking you in' with AK.