Squeeze play

[jo]

Would anyone mind explaining to me what a squeeze play is?

Does it apply to both preflop and postflop?

What kind of situations are crucial to pulling it off?

Thanks!

[gabe]

it can be pre or postflop.

its when there is a bet and a call (or a raise and a call preflop), and you put in another raise hoping to pick up the dead money. you are supposed to do it when the initial raiser has been aggressive and is likely to be showing aggression without a great hand.

the idea is that they have to give you credit for a pretty good hand because it shows such strength.

[Silly String]

This is mostly a pre-flop tournament move when you have pre-flop position. A squeeze play puts pressure on the original raiser by re-raising him (usually all-in), because he is not last to act anymore, if he calls the player behind him may call too or even re-raise him. This move assumes the caller has less of a hand than the opener or else he would have re-raised. It takes at least two opponents.
Example:
UTG+1 raises, MP1 calls, and now you act. You re-raise all-in now to put pressure on original raiser. His call does not close the action so he is more likely to muck his hand since MP1 may raise behind him. Now MP1 should muck behind, since you have shown great strength and he is likely not too strong, evidenced by his call.
Again the move is based upon the fact that the smooth caller will likely have a weaker hand than the original raiser or else he would have re-raised. Original raiser is more likely to much hand since his call doesn't close the pre-flop action any longer.
I like this play out of the blinds with unpaired hole cards since you get a lot of folds, and when you get called you get to see five cards since you are all-in.

[bigred]

Why is it mostly a tourney move?

[Silly String]

OK you caught me. I guess people do this in cash games too, but I have only seen it in tournaments. My bad.

[gabe]

it started in cash games

[LeFou]

My favorite is when I pull this and the original raise turns to the flat caller and says "I'll call if you will" and the caller says "okay," so they do.

It's actually happened to me. I was beside myself.

[jo]

My favorite is when I pull this and the original raise turns to the flat caller and says "I'll call if you will" and the caller says "okay," so they do.

It's actually happened to me. I was beside myself.

Isn't that collusion?

[jo]

Thanks guys. It sounds like something I've been doing , but without knowing the proper term for it.

How far do you generally push it though? With high cards I can't see much downside. But what about hands where you're less worried about multiple opponents, something like JTs - would you still attempt a squeeze play here?

[LeFou]

My favorite is when I pull this and the original raise turns to the flat caller and says "I'll call if you will" and the caller says "okay," so they do.

It's actually happened to me. I was beside myself.

Isn't that collusion?

Aye. This was an APL game, so they actually thought that was an appropriate way to behave.

I was beside myself.

Like this:

[bdawg56kg]

Thanks guys. It sounds like something I've been doing , but without knowing the proper term for it.

How far do you generally push it though? With high cards I can't see much downside. But what about hands where you're less worried about multiple opponents, something like JTs - would you still attempt a squeeze play here?

Generally I squeeze with the standard hands (AA-TT, AK, AQ, etc), or suited connectors like 76s, or (rarely) total garbage. The idea is that you don't want to do it with easily dominated hands like KJ/KQ because if you are called and catch something like top pair, you can potentially lose a lot of money with a 2nd best hand. Squeezing is something I would like to incorporate into my game more, so take my advice fwiw. I also should look for more situations to do it postflop...

[Warpe]

I was beside myself.

Like this:

Don't get caught using two accounts.

[johnnyBuz]

what kind of holdings do you need to have yourself to pull this off? relying on mp1 to fold because he smooth-called and probably has a weak hand seems -EV. if your doing this with AQ+, 88+ then i think it could be beneficial though.

what's an appropriate amount to re-raise in a cash game? all-in seems like a silly waste of a bet. if 25NL, original raiser makes it $1.0 to go. MP1 calls. you re-raise to like $4.0 or something? or is that too much? Risk 4 to win 2?

[jo]

what's an appropriate amount to re-raise in a cash game? all-in seems like a silly waste of a bet. if 25NL, original raiser makes it $1.0 to go. MP1 calls. you re-raise to like $4.0 or something? or is that too much? Risk 4 to win 2?

All-in is worse than just a waste, as the original raiser will only call when he has a genuinely strong holding which will beat yours.

I usually bet three to four times the raise.

[gabe]

i do it with total trash and with really good hands. but i dont consider reraising AA a squeeze play because the point of it is not to pick up the dead money, its for someone to call you down with a worse hand.

[Irisheyes]

Squeeze play:


***** Hand History for Game 4761965450 *****
$400 NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, July 19, 14:08:42 ET 2006
Table Table 106223 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 6: lolYouFoldEZ ( $458.20 )
Seat 1: MeSoSry ( $400.45 )
Seat 2: idefix73 ( $268 )
Seat 4: PostFlopPhobia ( $425 )
Seat 3: TunaCasaroll ( $458.56 )
Seat 5: The_Constant ( $430.41 )
PostFlopPhobia posts small blind [$2].
The_Constant is sitting out.
lolYouFoldEZ posts big blind [$4].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to lolYouFoldEZ [ 7d 8d ]
The_Constant has left the table.
MeSoSry raises [$16].
idefix73 folds.
TunaCasaroll calls [$16].
SiLi27 has joined the table.
PostFlopPhobia calls [$14].
lolYouFoldEZ raises [$66].
MeSoSry folds.
TunaCasaroll folds.
PostFlopPhobia folds.
lolYouFoldEZ wins $118

[gabe]

i dont like doing it there though because you have a pretty hand. with 3 people in the hand (which you have relative position in), thats a perfect time to take a flop with a 87s

[Irisheyes]

Grr.. and there was me thinking I was all cool and stuff..

[gabe]

reraising people without aa/kk/qq is cool regardless

[jo]

Hows this then:

4-handed 1/2 game with stack sizes all about 200

Aggressive fairly decent player raises 7 UTG. Because she's decent her range is pretty broad at this point.

Button folds and a weak player in SB cold calls.

I have AKo in BB. I'm not very happy about playing this OOP against a decent player with a broadly defined hand range, so I raise to 35. Both fold.

Squeeze play? Or just playing scared against UTG?

[Irisheyes]

Thats just playing well with a non-made hand OOP. The true definition would be doing it with total trash.

If you want to be cool though, we'll let you call it a squeeze!?

[alias2211]

you can learn to spot good opportunities to apply the squeeze play regardless of your hole cards. if you want to practice, next time you log into your poker room of choice, put a post it note over the area of the screen so that it hides your cards from view. then, look for the hands when you see an early raise and a single caller before you act. then pretend that you just bet the shit out of the pot w/ the squeeze play. finally, remove your post it and see what you're (hypothetically) going into the flop with: you will find that it's usually just trash. squeezing isn't for the faint of heart, but it definitely should be a part of any good, winning poker player's arsenal.