Floating, High card showdowns

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Tsyphon

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I'm curious about some strategy here. Do you guys tend to float for high card showdowns? During my short time playing I see online people getting to showdown with air, only high cards, not even draws or double broadway holds. Do you tend to float only if the price is minimal, and call a river bet just because the action was slow?

I don't want to play so tight as to only do things when I have top pair or a strong draw as I'm obviously losing money, but how can you convince yourself the price is right without a draw only holding second pair, or to be a soft calling station to showdown just because you have an ace.

I suppose what I'm asking is postflop play tips. I've made probably $400+ on my local cash games in my weekly play for the past 2 months (my total time with poker), but I feel I fluctuate either call too much or get forced off the best hand many times. Note I have studied up a bit on odds and equity.
 
Dorugremon

Dorugremon

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I'm curious about some strategy here. Do you guys tend to float for high card showdowns? During my short time playing I see online people getting to showdown with air, only high cards, not even draws or double broadway holds. Do you tend to float only if the price is minimal, and call a river bet just because the action was slow?

I can't explain it either. Fish do some strange things for strange reasons known only to themselves.

I don't want to play so tight as to only do things when I have top pair or a strong draw as I'm obviously losing money, but how can you convince yourself the price is right without a draw only holding second pair, or to be a soft calling station to showdown just because you have an ace.
It depends on how you read your opponent, board "texture" and how well or poorly it hit the range you're assigning him.

Last session I had this scenario come up. The vill opens from MP for 2XBB and I call behind with pocket eights. Flop comes down (T, 6, 5-rb). The vill wasn't a total unknown as I'd seen him play through about 10 orbits or so, though I hadn't played him before.

He 1/2 pots c-bet (routine) and I call. Here, that ten could have hit the bottom of his range: (AT) or (KT) and everything else missed (except for pocket tens, of course -- a definite long shot). Turn brings a 9c. He leads again for 1/2 pot, and I call again. River brings a seven, and he pots it. I cover, but not by very much, and if I lose this one it'll cripple my stack.

He's offering me 2 : 1 and I have to think about this. He's repping either a ten or a straight. Like I said before, the only tens he can have are (KT) and (AT) if he had (QT) or (JT) he wouldn't open-raise. I have two blockers to the straight, severely limiting his straight combos, and I don't think he'd raise with any of those hands either. He could have over pairs, but it looks like air predominates value hands by more than 2 : 1, so I called just before time ran out. It turns out he was getting way out of line with a (Kc2c) and pushing the lone overcard and a backdoor flush. It looked uncharacteristic that he'd open such a crappy hand and take it to the river the way he did.

He texted to Chat "Nice call" and a couple of hands later decides Dorugremon isn't anyone he wants sitting behind him. :eek:

If he'd been paying attention it wouldn't've come as such a surprise to him. :D

I suppose what I'm asking is postflop play tips. I've made probably $400+ on my local cash games in my weekly play for the past 2 months (my total time with poker), but I feel I fluctuate either call too much or get forced off the best hand many times. Note I have studied up a bit on odds and equity.
It all comes down to reads, reads, reads: what does the vill's range look like, and how well does it interact with the flop? What kinds of hands has he been showing down, win or lose? Can he bluff or does he peddle the nuts? You need to know all these things from observation. There are some things you just can't get from a book or video. It takes practice, practice, practice. Still, better to let go marginal winning hands than to turn into a calling station. The latter can get real expensive. If you get played off a winning hand, so what? It happens. You're better off making the mistake that only costs a few pennies mathematically than your entire stack.
 
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ph_il

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Floating and then going to showdown is just pretty silly.

Most likely, they attempted to float but couldn't pull the trigger on the turn and opted to go to showdown cheaply.

Or they floated to get the villain the slow down so they could get to showdown cheaply and get information on how villain played a certain hand/position.
 
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karl coakley

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I don't want to play so tight as to only do things when I have top pair or a strong draw

Why not?

Your showing a profit, why change? What you are talking about is putting a hole in your game, and I'd bet dollars to donuts that you start to lose by making changes like that.

I'd work on being more aggressive both pre and post flop. As you get tighter and more aggressive, c-bets and bluffs become much more effective.

One of the biggest mistakes I see players make is thinking they are going to come away from a session with a huge profit. They want to buy in for 200.00 and think they are going to leave with 1000.00. You have to be patient, once you have a profitable game, make small changes to increase that profit. Don't re-invent the wheel.
 
Gabinho12345

Gabinho12345

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If you float then it should be for reason to win hand on later street and not to get to the showdown.
 
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