The Squeeze Play

This article will look at the squeeze play, which is an advanced preflop strategy which can add a lot to your win rate in poker when accompanied with controlled aggression.

First of all, it’s important to understand what I mean by the squeeze play. The squeeze raise is simply another name for 3betting in certain situations, when there has been a raise, a flat call, and then a re-raise, which is the squeeze. Generally, the most common scenario is when the BTN open raises, SB calls, and then the BB has an opportunity to 3bet.

It is usually a really profitable play when you can expect the initial raise to fold to your 3bet. However, just because you find yourself in these situations doesn’t mean you should be relentlessly 3betting without thinking about why you are doing it.

Whenever you are considering the squeeze play in cash games you need to make sure that certain conditions are met. You want to make sure that the player who open raises is doing so with a wide range of hands. It can be a really profitable play to use the squeeze play against BTN and CO open raises because you know most players are opening up their game in late position.

While it would be good to squeeze with a decent hand which has some showdown value, you are essentially doing it as a bluff and can expect to win the dead money preflop, so it really doesn’t matter what cards you are doing it with, although it can be good to have some blockers like a A or K because you can be more confident the raiser doesn’t have a premium hand.

It’s important not to assume that raisers in late position are opening up their game in late position. Get a feel for their game and how they play. Even if you can be confident they are raising more hands in late position, you also want to be confident that they will fold to 3bets with a high frequency.

If your opponents are playing back at squeeze raises a lot and generally not giving your 3bets any respect, then you need to make adjustments and stop relentlessly 3betting. This is why it’s important to consider your table image. If you are seen to be an aggressive player who is bullying your opponents, then you can be sure they will play back at you. The optimal squeeze play strategy is when the player who open raises views you as a tight player and will in all likelihood fold to your 3bet and only continue with a premium hand.

Have you noticed that I haven’t mentioned anything about the player who has called the raise preflop? The reason for this is because you know this player is more then likely calling the raise with a weak range, so they will fold to the 3bet. If they had a premium hand, then 99% of the time they are not looking to trap with a big hand and would 3bet themselves, so the main consideration when determining if you will get a fold when doing the squeeze play is the original raiser.

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