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Explaining "Floating"
We've had some good feedback on "Stop & Go's" & "Squeeze Plays", so let's look at floating now.
As ever, we need you guys to come in with your thoughts, views & opinions, I can't do it beyond explaining the basic idea. I've had a lot of good feedback from relatively new players that these have been vey helpful so far, so we'll continue for a while.
I saw another chap chuntering yesterday that "I got called by an idiot", & someone complained that you can't have much fun with £30 on Sky Poker.
Well if we add all these little dodges & tweaks to our game, we have to be a better player eventually. And surely most of us want to improve?
Comments
When we float, we are essentially bluffing. If we have the best hand, we are not floating.
We do it OUT OF POSITION, i.e., we speak before the villain from the flop onwards.
The plan is to call his pre-flop raise, let him c-bet - as most good players should & do - then take it away by betting out on the turn.
We must know the player tendencies first of course - if he is opening a lot of flops, & always c-betting, we probably have the ideal opponent to do it to.
Beware of stack sizes - both us & the villain - as fold equity comes into it.
It's a very powerful play if used properly, but you do need a playable stack, & a bit of courage.
Try & have at least some reasonable pre-flop equity, just in case, but really, if it goes to plan, it's a stone cold bluff.
Let's have some views & examples please.
For me floating is basically calling a bet with a weak or marginal hand to see what our opponent will do on later streets with the intention of taking the pot away if you feel your opponent is weak or the board plays out in such a way that you can represent a big hand.
This can be a very profitable or costly play. If you are floating with weak holdings against a player who is just barrelling at you every street and not likely to fold then you are obviously throwing chips away. Conversely if you are floating against a player who is likely to be trying to read the story you are trying to tell as the board plays out then this can be highly profitable. Alas I would say this play like many others is very player dependent.
For me this type of play has to be used with caution and usually when I am playing less tables and feel tuned into the game and can make fairly accurate assessments as to my opponents likely actions on given streets based on their stack sizes, stage of the tourney and my table image etc etc.
One crude example may be that you call a raise with XX or spanners as Tikay may call them (Your hand is kind of irrelevant in this example). The flop is 722 (you completely missed the flop), your opponent continuation bets on the flop and you feel it is likely but not certain he does not have a pocket pair (probably has missed broadway cards) and you may be able to get him off the hand on later streets. Your opponent then checks the turn and confirms your thoughts that he may have wiffed the flop (you still have nothing yourself) and you make an appropriately sized bet and take the pot down.
An example of an advantage of the play: If your opponent bets strong on the turn and you feel they actually do have a monster then you can fold and saved yourself the price of a reraise on the flop to find out how strong they were.
An example of a disadvantage of the play: Just because your opponent doesn't lead the turn in this example obviously does not mean they 'do not have it'. They may feel that they cannot get value out of you on every street and may check for deception, setting you up to lose a chunk more of your stack.
EDIT: you filled in most of the blanks while I typed this up
Used to be known as calling to try and hit a middle pin when I was a lad...funny how poker trends change.
(some good threads you've started here Tikay...you maybe should have staggered them more as people have given great answers and there is good stuff to discuss. I'm hoping they aren't sent to page eight straight away but some geezer complaining about his freeroll).
There have been some great answers, I agree - really, most of us ought to have improved our game a bit by following some of the great tips & advice in these threads.
I don't give advice in them, for obvious reasons, I'm a bit poo these days, but when I start the one called "Explaining.... folding" I'll be all over that.