Take this common scenario: A loose and aggressive opponent open raises for 3 times the big blind in middle position, you call on the button and the blinds fold. The flop comes down 8s-7d-2d, the flop misses you and now your aggressive opponent bets 2/3rds of the pot as a continuation bet. From past experience you know that he would do this whether the flop hit him or not…

When you miss the flop the usual line here is to fold or occasionally re-raise as a bluff. A very effective alternative in these situations may be to try a ‘call bluff’ – you ‘float’ on the flop with nothing with the plan of taking the pot away on the turn.

Suited and / or connected flops make good candidates for the call bluff. You have given yourself two ways of winning the hand:

Firstly, your opponent might check the turn showing weakness. In this case a bet will often take down the pot. If you bet half the size of the pot on the turn then you only need to win the hand one in every three times to show a profit.

Secondly a ‘scare-card’ may appear on the turn allowing you to take the pot away even when your opponent continues to bet. In this example any diamond, 6 or 9 would worry an opponent with an over pair, that is a total of 17 cards out of the 47 yet to be seen that may enable you to re-raise the turn as a bluff.

Floating works best against opponents who habitually continuation bet on the flop when they raised pre-flop, but will give up when shown resistance. By watching hands even when you are not involved you should be able to see that this is a fairly common trait among low to mid-stakes NL Holdem players. Beware! ‘Calling Stations’ are not good candidates for the call–bluff, they are just too likely to go to showdown with their marginal holdings!

As with any move in NL Holdem, floating works best as part of a balanced strategy. If you always call the flop with nothing and then bet out when checked to astute opponents will pick up on this and may check-raise your turn bets more often. You can balance this strategy by making similar moves with your strong made hands too!

GL at the tables!

Mark Holland is an online poker pro and poker blogger. Aside from writing custom articles for PokerForums.org, he also writes on his blog where you can find more great online poker strategy tips and articles.