Reverse Floating

Floating/reverse floating

DISCLAIMER: Not for stakes 25nl and below. 25NLers might be able to take something away from this to use at the tables. For 10NL and below, valuebet valuebet valuebet and save the FPS for higher stakes.

Floating - Calling with a weaker hand/draw with intention of taking the pot away on a later street. Most often done in position.

Reverse floating - Floating out of position, usually applies in a Late position vs Blinds scenario

Why do we need it?

Hands are quite hard to make and often you’re going to be in an air vs relative air battle. In addition, you’ll see people cbet flops too much with hands that should/can be pot controlling. (Cbetting too much at the micros is NOT a leak if you plan on barreling good turns and rivers). Players will cbet 77 on K5x and then check back turn for “pot control” and then fold to a river lead. Vs some people that is a valid and good line. Vs others, checking back can be better.

When I sweat people I often see them 3bet hands like KQ/KJ/AT blinds vs LP. I’m not saying that it’s wrong, but these hands can be played profitably from the blinds without having to 3bet them (given that BB isn’t a squeeze monkey). If BB is a squeeze monkey, then 3betting from the SB is fine. These hands have postflop value and high card value and you’ll often see threads where “I flop tp in a 3bet pot and don’t know what to do”. Then you ask OP if they were 3betting preflop for value or not and they don’t really know. Unless villain is flatting all your 3bets, you can’t really know for sure and the average [good] player’s 3bet flatting range 100 deep will have you dominated and they’ll end up folding everything that you dominate pre.

Reverse floating

Good boards to do it on, in order of best to worst

Axxr/Kxxr/Qxxr

Why?

When you x/c on an Axxr board, especially oop, you rep Ax quite well. Since the board is A high and rainbow, there are less draws and no overcards for your opponent to barrel. When you x/c on a Kxx board, you rep Kx well. The only overcard is an Ace. When you x/c on a Qxx board, you rep Qx well. Ect.

Lead rivers often if the turn is checked through without relative SDV (or if you want to conceal your hand).
Hands to float with?
You can float with pocketpairs or cards with some connection to the board and some equity/chance to improve. Such as JTss AQxdds with the backdoor flushdraw. Or 78ss on K62scc again with the backdoor flushdraw. Having backdoor equity is always good. When you float pocketpairs on these boards, you’re basically using the high card on the board to get to showdown since you won’t get barreled often. Turning your small pp into a bluff on the river if the turn checks through so that you don’t have to show your hand (and that you’re capable of reverse floating) is fine. On Qxx/Kxx boards, you can float with Ax(AT/AJ) type hands for the over and possibly a gutshot.
Boards that are NOT good to reverse float would be ones that you are prone to getting barreled on. Such as 67Tssx/68Jssx and other middling connected/twotone boards. Reason being that there are more draws and overcards and you will get barreled if villain is semi competent. That and a lot of you guys NEVER EVER SLOWPLAY your SETS on connected boards because you’re scared of the board running out bad. As a side note, if you don’t protect your calling range with sets on these boards, you’re going to get barreled to kingdom come when you move up. Just something to keep in mind.
Of course all of this goes out of the window if villain is a One-pump-chump. Vs Mr. One pump, you can float wide and if you get double barreled you can happily muck your hand.
The Villains you choose to float/reverse float will be just as important as the boards you choose to do so. If villain is just a maniac barrel monkey, you will want to make your flop calling range stronger and just call down with TP+ instead of floating and getting tricky. So instead of reverse floating 56ss on A58ccs, you’ll want to have a hand like AT. It is important to pick up reads on your opponents barreling tendencies, whether they always barrel draws on the turn but give up rivers, or if they check back turns. Adjust accordingly (call down pairs lighter ott if they always barrel draws ott, river action depends on whether or not they fire brick rivers).
Some villains with WTSD of ~30%+ will never fold their hand if they pot control the turn, ie if they have KQ and they cbet AKx (lol), check turn and then you lead river with your mid pp and they snap it off because they pot controlled turn. Vs these guys don’t reverse float garbage, just flat Ax and lead rivers or c/f your mid pp OTR because you have some SDV vs their river checking range.
The games just got that much harder.
Or I just made everyone a cbet calling station.
Hope this was somewhat informational and good luck at the tables.
 
By "SharkbaitOHH" 2+2 member
 
Source: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/69/micro-stakes-pl-nl/pooh-bah-reverse-floating-972834/