A new weapon has developed in poker whose danger comes from the fact that it turns the logic of hand reading on its head. Stuart Rutter explains.
The ‘float’ is so powerful as it disobeys one of the fundamental pieces of logic in the game - namely, if a player calls, then he must have something - if not a made hand, then a draw to a made hand. This leads us to our definition of a float - to float is to flat-call, with no hand and no draw to a hand, simply with the intention of taking the pot down on a later street. Let’s look at a typical example.
Example #1
YOU (Button): 7s-6s
VILLAIN (Cut-off): ? ?
FLOP: Kd-Kc-9h
Your opponent raises the cut-off, and you call on the button with 7s-6s. The flop of Kd-Kc-9h rainbow misses you completely, and your opponent fires at the pot. It is a high variance play, but consider how strong your hand seems if you call the flop and bet the turn after your opponent checks. Even more strongly, you could re-raise the turn if your opponent bets.
Calling vs. raising on the flop
Unless your opponent is very suspicious of a float, I would argue that flat-calling on the flop in Example 1 is a much stronger bluff than re-raising. A re-raise normally carries a big suggestion of “I don’t believe you and I don’t think you can call,” and so immediately weakens your range by putting a lot of bluff hands into it. The beauty of a float, however, is that the one thing that doesn’t look possible is for you to have absolutely nothing, and so you represent a far stronger range. A float does indeed break one of the most simple rules of Hold’em, namely that a call can never be a bluff.
The right kind of boards to float
One key ingredient of a strong float is that there should not be too many draws on board. If the flop was instead QhJh2c, offering flush and straight draws which then miss, your opponent will presume that he can put a lot of missed draws into your range, and will be able to call you down a lot lighter.
Floating out of position
Position is often a crucial feature of the float, as it allows you to act with knowledge of your opponent’s action, but there can sometimes be even more cunning opportunities to float out of position.
The difficulty of floating out of position is that you act on the turn with no knowledge of whether your opponent will fire a second barrel on the turn. So, the opportunities that do arise, do so on the kind of board where it is very difficult for your opponent to fire again, unless he has a good hand. Let’s look at a typical example.
Example #2
YOU (Big Blind): Js-10s
VILLAIN (Button): ? ?
FLOP: As-4d-4c
The villain on the button raises, and you peel from the big blind with Js-10s. The flop comes As-4d-4c, and your opponent bets after your check.
If your opponent is active enough to open a wide range on the button and to continuation bet on most flops, this is a fabulous opportunity to make a strange flat-call with jack-high! This is not an attempt to represent you have something big like trip fours, but simply that you have an ace. The key component is that, once you called on an ace-high board with no draws, your opponent is very unlikely to attempt a double barrel-bluff. You can hope to win the pot most of the time your opponent does not have an ace (or backdoor into a fluky big hand), simply by betting the river every time your opponent checks behind on the turn.
The beauty of this move is that your bet on the river does not have to be at all big, and often you can get away with a sneaky small bet on the end. Floating out of position is more difficult, but the unlikeliness of it carries the advantage that, on this type of board, there is no logical way that you can be bluffing.
The Best Way to Bluff?
When a board hits like the A-4-4 in Example 2, there are actually three different ways you could attempt a bluff.
The worst by far is donking (leading out) into the pot, as it gives your opponent every opportunity to bluff you back. Of the other two options, I will try to explain why once again, calling is much stronger than raising.
A check-raise on an A-4-4 board after you have called from the big blind is actually a transparent and exploitable bluff. Most players in the big blind would presumably would re-raise hands like A-K and A-Q before the flop, and would understand that there is little value or need to re-raise the smaller aces on this flop. A solid opponent will understand that a check-raise is really only representing the unlikely trip fours, is likely to be a bluff, and that he ought to punish you by bluffing you back.
A flat-call and small bet on the river is not only potentially cheaper, but is the only believable line, and gives your opponent far less opportunity to bluff you back.
Playing Against the Float
The float is very powerful, but only against a player who is not keenly aware of its possibility. Indeed, every time a new line of attack develops in poker, those who are aware will always develop a counter-attack.
If you suspect your opponent is capable of floating, the right counter-strategy is actually very simple. If your hand is good enough that you would like your opponent to run an ill-timed bluff, give him every opportunity to do so. If you have no hand, and suspect that you and your opponent are both running without the ball, take away his opportunity to float. Think about adding these types of play to your game against a floater:
1. If you flop really big on a dry board, the standard play might be to check to let your opponent either bluff or catch something himself. Instead, if you flop a hand like A-K on a K-K-2 rainbow flop, throw a floater some bait by betting big on the flop and checking the turn.
2. If instead you have nothing on this board, it is too much of a gift to a floater to check-fold the turn. You could frustrate the floater by double-barrelling, but an even more daring play is to take the same line, with the intention of check-raising the turn. This is, however, a very expensive play, and requires some extra knowledge about your opponent- the best nugget you could hold for this play would be if you have seen your opponent raise his big hands on the flop. |
