One of the most advanced bluff moves in poker appears to be one of the most straightforward to execute. In essence, the float move involves calling an opponent on the flop when weak with the intention of claiming the pot on the turn or river with the implication of strength. Easy then. Well no, not really, because as always timing and the right set of circumstances are required to make the move successful and to avoid looking foolish.
Much of the criteria needed for the play to be profitable should be easy to remember. Firstly, it is best to attempt the float against one opponent only. To challenge the strength of multiple opponents in this way is high risk or folly for the obvious reason that there is much greater likelihood that a genuinely strong hand is out there. Secondly, position is key. If your opponent has raised the pot pre-flop and fired a continuation bet thereafter there is every chance he has missed the board. The ‘c-bet’ is generally successful because it assumes that others will fold if they miss. The float is a direct challenge to this assumption and has the capability of destroying the potency of the ‘c-bet’. In essence we are talking about head-to-head power play each time taken to its next dimension. The pre-flop raise without great strength is merely phase one, the ‘c-bet’ on a miss is phase two and the float play (a call with nothing) introduces phase three.
As with all aspects of bluffing a good read is everything. Floating an opponent who rarely plays a non-premium hand is likely to be foolish in the extreme. However, a frequent pre-flop raiser who is aggressively pushing a wide range of cards could be ripe for the picking. Logically, somebody who plays any two high cards or any suited connectors but always fires a bet at the flop must be betting with air a high percentage of the time. It is therefore too weak to give up the ghost everything you suspect that you both missed. But for the play to succeed you need to know whether the loose aggressor will read your call as strength and give up on the turn. If he will relentlessly fire again on the turn and river with nothing then floating is not the play to challenge him with. Rest assured that these characters will instead pay you off handsomely when you finally do pick up a big hand.
But rest assured there are a huge number of players who do see the benefit of hammering the play pre-flop and on the flop but then do slowdown from then on against apparent strength. The float is therefore most likely to work against aware opponents. A maniac who is oblivious to what’s going on around him may be the wrong target for this subtle manoeuvre. Over time it should be possible to determine who is scared of an ominous flat call. Funnily enough, it will often be the better players who are aware, and therefore ‘float candidates’. But this realisation requires further caution because the best players of all maybe able to spot a float when they see one as well. Nothing is ever straight forward in this game!
So far we have viewed the float entirely as a bluff move with scant regard to the cards actually in one’s own hand. But let’s consider a partial float play that isn’t really a bluff so much as a biding of time, displaying some strength and allowing an opportunity to gain further information on the turn. Let’s consider that I have position but have only called a loose aggressive pre-flop raiser with A-Q. Firstly, why didn’t I re-raise!?! No matter. Given that I only called, how should I then react to a rainbow board of 10-7-2? The loose aggressive opponent inevitably ‘c-bets’ and so the decision passes back to me. I regret to say that on too many occasions in the past my natural inclination would have been simply to fold and wait for a better spot where I actually do connect with the board. But hang on; there must be a pretty strong chance that I’m still winning here against much of my opponent’s range. I could consider a re-raise to see if this can take the pot but in many formats this will be risking quite a high percentage of my chips with ace high. I’m not saying this isn’t an option but flat calling may be the best of all three alternatives in this spot. The most crucial aspect of my decision making here is how I perceive my play will be interpreted. Experience tells me that a re-raise will look more suspicious than a call here due to the barren nature of the flop. If I was really strong then why would I want to risk scaring off my rival with a re-raise when there appear to be so few scare cards out there? Had I flopped a set then I would almost certainly be flat calling the ‘c-bet’ so that’s what I will do now. Implied strength.
Having partially executed the float, the turn card now becomes pivotal. There is every chance that the loose aggressor will shutdown if he still hasn’t hit at this point. If he fires convincingly again then I may have to admit defeat but with the consolation that a re-raise on the flop would have cost me even more chips. But there are still two further possibilities, both of which could work in my favour. Firstly, I could spike an ace or jack either of which would be top pair and hard to read having called a flop with nothing. A further possibility is that a card comes along that I can ‘represent’. A second 7 for example could be represented by a re-raise that suggests I called the flop with second pair and then got lucky. Of course, this could be read as a bluff but with the right table image and against the right opponent it could be a great play. It just goes to show that a well timed float can open up a world of possibilities.