The deeper-stacked your tournament situation the more opportunity you’ll have to make use of this advanced play. The move involves calling a bet on the flop with a substandard hand (frequently referred to as ‘floating’) and then taking the pot away on a later street by raising. As the majority of tournament players now routinely make a continuation bet – i.e. they know that if they’ve raised pre-flop they should more often than not follow up with a bet on the flop – it’s important that you exploit the times that your opponents are continuation betting with nothing (about two-thirds of the time) by using this play.

Example

Crush predictable players by calling continuation bets and raising on the turn

SCENE: With the blinds at 100/200 a player you view as weak opens for 600 in early position. You can be fairly sure about his range of hands so you decide to call on the button with A♦-8♦ (2.1).

ACTION: The flop comes J♥-6♥-10♣. He bets 900 into the pot of 1500. You decide to ‘float’ him by calling (2.2). This flop is unlikely to have helped his hand directly (it’s particularly bad for A-K or A-Q) and, critically, there are several cards that could come on the turn that would worry him. The turn is 3♥. He bets 1200. You raise to 2800 (2.3). He folds and you win the pot.

REASON: Notice that the heart provided the perfect opportunity to represent something strong – in this case a flush. You make a relatively small raise that looks like it wants a call to indicate strength. Against very weak players who only look at the size of a bet you may want to raise more. In this spot you may even get a weak-tight opponent who always sees monsters under the bed to fold an overpair.

Let’s say the turn brought a much less scary card, such as 5♠ or similar. Here if your opponent checks – providing he is a fairly predictable player – it is often profitable to bet as it’s highly likely his bet on the flop was a continuation bet with overcards or a medium pair.

Be very aware of the range of hands you’re representing when you make this play. Against tight opponents it’s possible to make them fold hands as strong as an overpair in the right spots. If the board is 8♣-6♠-5♣-4♣ and you make a pot-sized bet on the turn, regardless of your cards your tight opponent’s hand will suddenly look very small.

This play can be made out of position too, but this should only be done if you are very confident of your read on your opponent and your ability to overcome your positional disadvantage later in the hand – which is much harder to do than many players assume.