Poker Tip Man Armen-"The Float"
The basics of how to float in poker
Floating in poker is an advanced play that many poker players don't utilize as they don't even know what it is. So what is floating in poker?
Floating is when you call someone's continuation bet on the flop with absolutely nothing with the intention to bluff on the turn or the river. In order to be successful in floating you need to know your opponent's range of hands. This normally works best with tight players who will make a fold with Ace high on the turn. For example; let's say you call a preflop raise of 3X out of position with 87 of diamonds and go heads-up to the flop. You know, or have a gut feeling that your opponent is raising with AK or AQ preflop. The flop is 10s, 4s, 2h. You check and the opponent fires a continuation bet. At this point most players give up and fold to the continuation bet as they only have 8 high. What I like to do before I decide to float I try to predict the amount of the continuation bet. I say to myself, “If he or she bets less than 75% of the pot I'm going to float. If he or she bets 75% to 100% of the pot I'm going to fold.” Most made hands like over-pairs or top pair will fire 75% to 100% of the pot or higher, as they want the flush draw to pay to see the turn. Let's say the opponent shoots out a continuation bet of 50-60% of the pot and I put him on a continuation bet...I go into float mode. I don't like to doubt my instincts. To start the float I smooth call and we go to the turn. If the turn card is a blank card like 4d. I take control by betting out about 75% of the pot. At this point the opponent will most likely fold and you take the pot down. If you get a call then they might have a flush draw or AK hoping that they hit their flush, ace or king. If the river is a blank card go ahead and take it down with a disguised value bet. It's really difficult for any player to call you with ace high as you started your bluff early, so they will lay it down. You might run into small pocket pairs from time to time. Some extremely great poker players might call you with ace high or even raise you on the river, so be very careful with whom you float on. This is a known tactic and some players might smell the float.
Floating is a big part of the game that can help you take pots down that don't belong to you. I also suggest floating as soon as you sit down at the table, even if you don't win the hand, this will expose a bully, also will make other opponents think twice before they fire with ace high or absolutely nothing. It takes lots of time to master the bluff known as the float so try it out playing online low stakes tournaments, low stakes sit n go and low stakes cash games. You might need to lose a few hands before you get the hang of it. You can't do it every time, you need to learn to pick the right spot.
Play Hard, Play Smart and Learn to Float
Unfortunately this gets exploited by your opponent betting all his top pair and overpairs to a sizing that's less than 75% pot, which an opponents likely default strategy is going to be unless you play live. Donking into the preflop raiser when he has cbet is extremely hard to balance. Often on this board the preflop raiser is going have a pretty strong range when you get to the turn this way. Also if you are going to try this strategy it only really makes sense if you actually start the bluff (you are choosing this hand to float with and then bluff on the turn) with some equity or it's just going to be -ev in the long run, ie. why reverse float this hand when you could reverse float 98s where you have a backdoor flush as well as a backdoor straight draw.
Edit: also it makes more sense to bluff turns where a 4 or a 2 comes off as it's not as likely that your opponent cbet with a 4 or 2 and you can have all the 4's or 2's depending on what the preflop actions were or even what kind of game this was. Also floating isn't something that you should be aiming to do, it is more a combination of how the board runs out, how many bluffs your range has and how much equity your range has and so forth.
Good point im going to make the change.
Floating in general is extremely hard so it take time to get it right. Yes the opponent does pick up an extra 4 outs with one card to come. Total outs are 10 so only 20 percent chance of hitting the river. I see your point but got to take the chance when you get a read. If they hit the river then you back off. Its always a risk. Thanks for pointing it out.