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Introduction to Floating

The idea behind floating is pretty simple. The theory is that aggressive players raise a lot preflop, and miss the flop more often than they hit it. Therefore, an opponent who c-bets often tends to be bluffing a lot of the time. Floating is simply calling an opponent’s c-bet on the flop, in position, with the intent to steal the pot on a later street (usually the turn).

Floating is a technique best used against players with at least some strategic skill. Against total beginners, it’s useless. However once you start running into TAGs and more generally aggressive players, you’ll find that floating is an effective tool that can be used to defend against over-aggression.

What kind of player should I float?

Watch for aggressive players that c-bet a lot. As mentioned above, a lot of the time when they fire at a flop, they’ve missed it completely. The trick to floating effectively is learning to identify the boards that your opponent has missed.

How do you go about doing that? You’ve got to take into consideration your opponent’s preflop raising range. Identify what hands they are likely to raise with preflop, and compare that set of hands with the cards that fall on the flop. Do they match up? Is it likely that your opponent has missed entirely, or does the board seem like a good match with the hands he could possibly hold?

It’s a guessing game, and it relies heavily on intuition. You’ll find as you deal with more and more situations however, that your best guess is usually a pretty good one. Poker players are predictable- there are only a few different strategies in common use, so once you’ve dealt with a situation against a particular type of opponent, chances are it’ll pop up again.

Show me!

Okay! Let’s look at an example of a situation where we could potentially run a float.

Imagine you are playing a game of $1/2 NL Holdem. You’re in the cutoff, and a standard TAG raises to $6 from middle position. You hold 78d and decide to call, since your hand pretty much directly opposes your opponent’s range. The pot grows to $15 on the flop, and the flop is dealt.

4c-9h-6h. This is a horrible flop for your opponent. You can be fairly certain that this flop missed him, unless he’s holding a pocket pair of some sort. He bets $11, about 2/3rds of the pot, which is his standard c-bet. Here’s where it gets interesting. Think about what he could hold- would he bet out with a set of 4’s, 6’s, or 9’s? Probably not. He sure doesn’t want to scare you off if he’s holding a monster like that.

What about larger pairs, like Jacks through Aces? He might bet out to cut off draws, but even then it would be unreasonable for him to assume that you were holding a hearts draw. You’ve given him no information that suggests it. His large pair would be a significant favorite, and he’d want to extract value from his hand. You know that in order to do this he would usually feign weakness on the flop by checking.

Knowing all of that, you can reasonably deduce that he’s probably holding a hand like AK, AQ, or KQ that totally missed the flop. He always c-bets, so his aggression doesn’t necessarily represent strength. Given what you’ve guessed he holds, it’s actually extremely likely that his bet is a bluff.

This is a great situation for a float. You call the $11, and the turn card comes 2d. A brick to both of you. Your opponent checks, wondering what the heck you’ve got. You bet $30 into the $37 pot, and your opponent folds to your show of strength. Perfect execution of a float.

Why not just check-raise the flop?

You should do both occasionally. It’s all about balance. That said, a float is generally cheaper than a flop check-raise, and it gives you more information than flop aggression would, making it more appropriate when you have a draw or absolute air. Flop check-raises can work great as semi-bluffs, whereas when stone cold bluffing, floating can be a better option.

By calling the flop, you give your opponent an opportunity to give you more information on the turn. If he checks the turn, this could indicate weakness. If he double-barrels, he’s either an insanely good bluffer, or he’s got some kind of hand, and you can fold more comfortably.

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