The Squeeze Play
The squeeze play is one of the most complicated and advanced bluffs that you can pull off in poker. In fact, its difficulty makes it very unsuitable for any new or inexperienced players to attempt.
Unlike simpler bluffs, such as the continuation bet or semi-bluff; the squeeze play is much more about table position, reading players’ strength and possessing the correct table image.
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What is Squeeze Play and how does it work?
Squeeze play involves making a re-raise or “3bet” in late position with the aim of folding the two loose open-raisers and callers in front of you. Your aim is to “squeeze” both of these players out of the pot by re-raising them a large amount (potentially all-in) and making it look like your have a premium hand (i.e. QQ+/AJ+) that they cannot afford to call.
The logic behind the squeeze play is that you should only do so against two loose players who are known to be open-raising and flat-calling with marginal hands in early position. If timed correctly, the open-raiser will fold because he has a weak hand and can’t afford to call with two players behind him to act, and the caller will fold because his decisions to flat-call rather than re-raise the open-raiser means that he’s holding a marginal hand (e.g. 67s/QJs) at best.
The perfect example of successful squeeze play was done by Dan Harrington (author of the successful MTT trilogy “Harrington on Holdem”) at the final table of the 2004 WSOP. Josh Arieh raised UTG with K9o, Greg Raymer called in MP with A2 suited and than Harrington, sensing weakness in the others, made a re-raise with 62o, winning the pot and increasing his poker bankroll.
Squeeze play is normally associated with large multi-table tournaments, where rising blinds and antes make pre-flop pots extremely profitable to bluff. For example, with blinds of 100/200 in the middle stages of a tournament, winning a pre-flop pot after an open-raiser and caller can be worth up to 1200 chips (over 10% of an average stack of 10,000 chips at this stage).
Conditions for Squeeze Play
Because the squeeze play is such a difficult/advanced move to master, you need to use it sparingly and only under the following circumstances.
1. You need to be certain that the two players who raised and called in front of you were doing so with either weak or marginal hands. If they’ve regularly been open-raising and folding to re-raises than this is a good indication of their weakness, or you can just use your tournament HUD stats to analyse their pre-flop strength.
2. Your table image is important: preferably you need a tight table image in order to convince both of the players behind you that you have a very strong hand.
3. The bigger your chip stack and re-raise, the more successful you’re likely to be. A typical 3bet when doing this should be around 4x opening raise. If your stack is below 10BBs than this won’t be very effective.
4. Ideally you don’t want anymore than 2 opponents in the pot when attempting this. The more opponents that are in the pot, the lower the chances of success.
5. Having plenty of “outs” in case you get called is sensible. Technically you can do this move with any two holding cards however it’s much better to do so with live cards such as QJs, 89s, suited aces etc…