An Introduction to Floating

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Every so often a new strategy comes along that takes the poker world by storm; so much so that it becomes completely overused and instead of exploiting an opponent it becomes an exploitable tendency for most players. Perhaps no strategic “move” has gone more mainstream than the Squeeze-Play introduced by Dan Harrington in Harrington on Hold’ Em. But squeezing isn’t the only strategy that has caught on with the masses; a prime example being “Floating”. The good news is most people misuse or overuse these plays, so in this column I’ll go over the ins and outs of floating to make sure floating remains a deadly play in your arsenal and not some exploitable weakness.

Before I get into the specifics of floating –when to float and against what types of players—let me give a quick description of floating for the uninitiated who may stumble upon this article:

Floating is when you simply call a bet (most often on the flop) when you have little to no chance of improving to the best hand, with the intention of bluffing on a later street. The reason you “float” is to see how your opponent responds to your call, and since most players are not going to continue to bluff when their opponent has shown some interest in the hand they will often “give-up” and stop betting, which allows you to then bluff them off a weak or mid-strength hand.

There are several aspects to a good float most important of all is being heads-up. If you are not heads-up you really aren’t floating (calling after a bet and a call by another player with nothing is commonly referred to by its technical name; “playing badly”). While the following situations are not always necessary, they do make floating much easier and far more successful:

Position

Other than being heads-up, the key to a good float is position. When you have position over your opponent you get to see two post-flop actions before you make your second decision of what you want to do on the turn. For example, suppose you call a raise on the button from a player in the cutoff with JsTs, and the flop comes down A88 with two hearts. Basically you have nothing, but considering your opponent open-raised from the cutoff, and the flop contains a pair, it’s also likely he has nothing as well. So when your opponent fires his continuation bet it really doesn’t tell you much about his hand, so this is a perfect opportunity to float the flop and see what your opponent wants to do on the Turn. Since your opponent doesn’t know if your flop call is you slow-playing an Ace, sitting on trips, calling him down with a pair 9’s, chasing a flush-draw, or a float, he must now decide if he wants to bet again.

If your positions were reversed and you limped and called from the cutoff (which you shouldn’t do by the way) you would have to check/call the flop and then check back to your opponent on the Turn to see what he does, AND even if he checks back you have no idea if he’s trapping you and suckering you into making a River bet. When you try to float out of position you have to pretty much play three betting rounds passively (limp/calling pre-flop, check/calling the flop, and now checking the turn) which gives your opponent the green-light to bet with basically his entire range on the Turn.  The fear factor of your positional call is not as strong and your opponent is less likely to slow-down.

It is possible to float out of position –when it goes check/check on the Turn and you lead the River– but this is a far more difficult play, and your opponent is more likely to fire a second-barrel when he has seen you once again check to him. You need to have a very good read on your opponent to try to float out of position.

The Right Opponent

For the most part your floating targets should be casual players or players who are extremely deliberate in the way they play hands. That being said, you will find plenty of opportunities to float against good players and aggressive players, but this is like trying to take aim at a target with a 10” circumference as opposed to one with a 24” circumference –it’s possible to hit it, but it’s harder. Unless you have to because of the table dynamics, you should target weaker players with your floats.

The best players to float are the ones who are very ABC: basically players who raise premium hands, and fire a continuation bet most of the time on the flop hit or miss but then slow down on the turn unless they have a hand. Players who commonly fire two and three barrels are bad floating prospects, unless you want to risk a lot of chips on a risky Turn-Raise with complete air, or float the flop and the turn hoping they won’t fire a third barrel.

The Right Timing/Situation

Timing is everything, both in life and poker, and there isn’t a poker “move” you will use that requires better timing than floating. Here are a couple of situations where your chances to run a successful float will increase –in addition to being heads-up, in position, against the right opponent:

• You have shown down really strong hands using a call the flop, bet when checked to on the turn line.
• When you have been hitting and showing a lot of strong hands.
• Your opponent is continuation-betting at a far higher rate than one expects to see.
• When your opponent has a polarized range. When your opponent is weak it’s easy to just raise the flop and end the hand, but when your opponent could have nothing or a really strong hand it’s a better idea to float, as most players (*most* being the optimal word) will slow down on the Turn with air but continue to bet their good hands.  Just be careful that a tricky player doesn’t trick you into thinking your floating when he flops a monster.

Other Considerations: Stack Size

Keep in mind that as stacks get shorter floating becomes far more difficult and is often too costly a tactic to employ. And unlike a cash game where stacks are usually 100 BB’s deep, in tournaments you are far more likely to be playing with a 25-50 BB stack, which can leave you exposed to re-shoves from your opponents, especially opponents that recognize you are a player capable of floating. Here are two different examples of stack sizes affecting floating:

Example #1: you and your opponent have 20-25BB stacks; your opponent raises to 2.5BB from MP and you call on the button with JsTs. When your opponent continuation bets on the flop (say for 4BB) you’re already getting to a point where your opponent is getting pot-committed to the hand and he will be far more likely to call a shove by you with a medium strength hand, like middle pair. Additionally, if you call his 4BB bet on the flop, he has the perfect turn-shove stack, as there is about 14-15BB in the pot and he has just over that in his stack.

Example #2: you and your opponent have 35BB stacks. The action is the same as in Example #1, but this time your opponent checks to you on the Turn and you bet 8BB. In this case, if your opponent understands floating on any level he would be wise to simply reshove on you, forcing you to commit your final 20BB to the pot, which will be hard with even decent made hands.

So as you can see, stack-sizes should also play a big role in when you float.

Other Considerations: When Your Opponent Bets the Turn

Guess what? Sometimes your float simply won’t work, and your opponent will fire the Turn. But that’s ok, floating is not supposed to work 100% of the time, and if it is you simply aren’t floating enough. The good news is that failed floats usually cost less than 10BB’s total, so they are not overly risky plays especially when you are deep-stacked in the early stages of a tournament. Some players will try to float their opponent’s Turn bet as well (and this is an important strategy against good players) but I’ll leave that for another article…