The FLOAT

Lately, I feel like I am always the bubble or close to it.

Anyway....

How often do you use the "float". The popular thing used to be the C-bet, but now that everyone is doing it, good players on every poker site are starting to use the float. You know that at least 75% of the time, you will see a c-bet (continuation bet).

You have 3 choices after the c-bet.

1)Fold. If you missed the flop, which is 67% of the time, you can safely fold and only be out the pre-flop bet. But since your opponent only hits the flop 33% of the time, you might feel like you are folding to a bluff and wish you had another option.

2)Re-raise. Regardless of your cards, you show strength with the re-raise. Now 67% of the time (when your opponent missed the flop) you should expect that they will fold. However, there is a good part of the time when they started with a strong hand (AA, KK, QQ, or AK) or you might be playing against a super aggro player, and in those two cases they will shove over your re-raise. Either way, you will have to fold unless you feel you have the NUTS hand, and that gets expensive.

3)Call. This is where we get the "FLOAT". First of all, you give virtually no information with calling here. You could have a monster hand, a drawing hand, or absolutely nothing -which is when you are really floating. Secondly, you get to see a free card. If you are drawing, you may hit. If you have two over cards, you may suddenly have the best hand. In either case, you have improved with good value. And thirdly, if you are in position or not, a bet on the turn takes out all the bluff c-bets. Because the bluff c-bet is much more popular now, you will certainly get more value by floating in this situation.

In any case, you need to be careful to pick your spots, but the "FLOAT" should definitely be a part of your weaponry when playing online.