Poker Squeeze Play
When playing in a texas holdem poker tournament there are situations where you can play against your opponents tendencies regardless of the two cards in your hand. One of the most common of these situations can be exploited by the poker squeeze play. A squeeze play is performed when you are one of the blinds and a loose aggressive player open raises in late position and is just called by the button. You then make a large re-raise, generally all-in unless your deep stacked, causing the loose aggressive player and button to fold. The loose aggressive player is likely to fold because they are raising with a wide range of hands and more often than not will not have a hand strong enough to call your all-in. The button is likely to fold because they only flat called and with their favorable position were just likely trying to see a cheap flop.
There are other factors that you need to consider before attempting the squeeze play.
- You need to have enough chips so that your raise would be threatening to both your opponents. If you don't have many chips your opponent may be getting proper pot odds to call your all-in raise.
- Both your opponents have to be capable of folding. There are many online poker players that are not capable of folding their hand once they invested money into the pot.
- Your opponents will be more likely to give you credit for a good hand if you have a tight table image. If you have a loose aggressive table image your opponents will be willing to call you lighter than they would if you have a tight table image.
- You can squeeze with any two cards. However, when you squeeze you want your opponents to fold. So to get the most value from your premium hands you should not squeeze, because it is more profitable for them to call a smaller raise from you. It is also beneficial to squeeze with hands that flop well, like suited connecters, in case you are called by a good hand.
-It is not worth the risk to attempt to squeeze early in a tournament. It should only be attempted late in a tournament when the blinds are high.
It is important to follow the above guidelines and to pick your spots. If you do can do that, the squeeze play can be a great way late in a tournament to accumulate chips in a hand that you otherwise shouldn't even be involved in.
