When To Consider Floating
Floating is when you call a bet with the
intention to take down the pot later on in the
hand. It is assumed that you have a hand with
little to no showdown value when you float. The
intent is to allow a player to fire a c-bet on
the flop but then take the pot away if he slows
down on the turn. Floating is an extremely
effective method for winning hands post-flop
without going to showdown. There are times where
floats will be made but never develop into a
situation where the pot can be taken away and
there will be times where you lose more money
than you would have by just raising their flop
bet. The successful execution of a float relies
on the ability to put your opponent on a hand
and use the cards on the board to your
advantage.
When is floating a bad idea?
Usually you should not float when you are out
of position. Being out of position allows the
other player to remain in control and makes
everything more difficult than it would be if
you were in position. You should not float
against overly aggressive players either. If you
float the flop but then they bet the turn anyway
you will not be given the opportunity to take
away the pot cheaply.
When is floating a good idea?
You could probably deduce through a process
of elimination that floating is better when you
are in position as opposed to out of position.
The reason is quite simple. You can’t wait for
the other player to slow up and then bet if you
are out of position, but when you are in
position the other player acts first. Their
first action will allow you to go ahead with the
float or abandon it. If they check the turn
after betting the flop you are in the ideal
situation for a bet. If they bet the flop and
the turn you should be more hesitant, though you
might still make a raise. Either way, being in
position allows you to gain more information and
it lets you use that information to your
advantage.
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What types of boards are good to float on
If you are looking to float your opponent you
should feel that they have missed the flop and
are betting with nothing. If they bet the flop
and there is a good chance they made their hand,
it is not a good time to float. The ultimate
goal is to force the opponent out on a later
street for a small price. The goal is not to
force your opponent out at all costs. This is
the key to the float and why, when done
correctly, it is an extremely valuable tool.
Your hand will be XX in this example, you are
not told your hand because your focus should be
on what the other player might have, not what
you have.
The pre-flop action consists of a raise by
the villain and a call by you. They are a
somewhat tight player and would open with a
small range of hands. For the sake of this
example we will say his open raising range is
all pocket pairs and AT+.
The flop is A 8 K.
He bets the flop. Now, do you float this
hand?
Yes, it is very possible that he has a pocket
pair and is continuation betting.
The turn is a Q and he checks. Now you can
make a @ pot sized bet, if not a bit smaller. If
he indeed has a pocket pair he will usually fold
for fear of being beaten by a Q, K, or A. If he
calls or raises you can put him on an ace or
better hand.
If the flop was 3 4 7 it would not be as good
of a board to float on. He beats the board a
large portion of the time or knows that you
likely missed. He will make a turn bet
regardless of his hand enough times that you
won’t have the opportunity to take it away.
Summary of floating
Float against players who can put the brakes
on their aggression and against players whom you
can assign a reasonable range of hands to. If a
player has shown relentless aggression or you
have no read on their style you are better of
not floating them.
