Floating - Hunter Bick of DragTheBar

F Paulsson

F Paulsson

euro love
Silver Level
Joined
Aug 24, 2005
Total posts
5,799
Awards
1
Chips
1
In the next video excerpt from DragTheBar Hunter discusses floating:

Typical situation: You have a nicely tight and balanced range with which you cold call raises preflop. Stuff like pocket pairs, suited connectors, maybe some suited aces, and perhaps some big card hands like KQo that you don't want to 3bet. Then the flop comes and you whiff. Your opponent cbets.

Strategy dilemma: You know that your opponent will have whiffed this flop very often as well. He's more likely than not to be bluffing. If you fold every time you miss the flop, you need a much tighter range to cold call, which in turn is highly exploitable. How to resolve it?

Answer: Floating. Call the flop bet with the intention of bluffing the turn.

Hunter Bick kindly guides us through some things to think about when it comes to floats, and you should pay specific attention to becoming exploitable in the OTHER direction (floating too often) because good opponents will charge you dearly for it. Check out this article here:

Identifying Floating Opportunites

On a personal note, and this may be a question of preference or style or it might be that I make a mistake, but I only very rarely float with absolute air. If I consider floating the flop with "almost nothing" it's virtually always an "almost nothing" that has backdoor draws to the nuts, or nearly so. I.e., I might very well float a K-8-4 rainbow flop with a backdoor flushdraw, but I'd almost never float it without it. I find that I flop backdoor draws to float often enough to make it hard for people to just cbet to get rid of me, but also not so often that I'm a flop calling station. Besides, it's fun to tilt people when they stack off to a runner-runner straight, even if our original intention was just to bluff the turn.

http://www.youtube.com/user/DragtheBar?feature=mhum

Hunter Bick on Floating:

Part 1:

YouTube - Floating The Flop: Part 1

Part 2:

YouTube - Floating The Flop: Part 2.mp4

Part 3:

YouTube - Floating The Flop: Part 3
 
Last edited by a moderator:
C

cAPSLOCK

Cardschat Elite
Silver Level
Joined
Jul 22, 2008
Total posts
2,550
Chips
0
Excellent. Most impressed with the clarity and depth of the explanation.

I appreciate it.
 
T

ThunderPT

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Apr 28, 2010
Total posts
336
Chips
0
Thanks for the video. Here's a question: what's your take on floating vs. raising the flop to counter a player who c-bets too much? I've been raising most of the times if the texture is right, partly because I don't want him to catch on the turn and partly because it looks stronger. Floating on the other hand is "safer" since when he checks we're more confident that he missed. Plus, a lot of weak players with strong draws (like to the nut flush) will semi-bluff the flop and be willing to move all-in there, but will shy away on the turn and even fold if we price them out.

One thing I never had thought about is that floating does help us balance our flop calling range, but then again isn't it also important to balance our raising range?

So, I guess, like in most situations, the best is to find a perfect balance between the two plays so they both remain profitable.

What do you think?
 
BeachJustice

BeachJustice

DragTheBar CEO
Silver Level
Joined
Apr 22, 2010
Total posts
35
Chips
0
Thanks for the video. Here's a question: what's your take on floating vs. raising the flop to counter a player who c-bets too much? I've been raising most of the times if the texture is right, partly because I don't want him to catch on the turn and partly because it looks stronger. Floating on the other hand is "safer" since when he checks we're more confident that he missed. Plus, a lot of weak players with strong draws (like to the nut flush) will semi-bluff the flop and be willing to move all-in there, but will shy away on the turn and even fold if we price them out.

One thing I never had thought about is that floating does help us balance our flop calling range, but then again isn't it also important to balance our raising range?

So, I guess, like in most situations, the best is to find a perfect balance between the two plays so they both remain profitable.

What do you think?

You're last sentence nails it. Both floating and bluff raising are very important plays to have in your game. They both will be very effective in the right spots against the right opponents, and they both will help you balance your value range, which is super important. Not only will the perfect balance keep your bluffs profitable, but it will generally make your made hands more profitable as well.

To answer the first part, the board texture and his hand range are big variable in deciding whether to raise or float, but also how often I've been raising the flop against this opponent is also very important. An example would be if a very tight player raises in middle position and you call on the button. The flop comes down 456 flush draw. A bluff raise might be great here, because most of his range is broadway combos, and he's not the type who will 3bet bluff you. On the other hand, lets say a good loose aggressive player opens in MP, you call on the button and the same board falls. He's probably a lousy candidate to bluff raise here, because he's got a lot of the cards that connect to that board in his range, and he's not afraid to felt any of those possible draws. So he'd probably be a better candidate to float here rather than bluff raise.
 
Top