The Squeeze Play

A squeeze play is a move that is primarily used in poker tournaments. The squeeze play is an advanced play that, when done correctly, can pick up many chips for a player with relatively low risk. Before executing the play, the player must assess the situation, and not his/her cards.

Example of the Squeeze Play

At blinds 50-100, Player 1 in position UTG+1 raises to 300. The player on the button (player 2) calls for 300. The big blind (player 3) then goes all in for 1500. Both players 1 and 2 fold. Player 3 just executed a successful squeeze play.

Why it Works

As mentioned earlier, this play should be done at us online poker rooms and based on the situation and not the cards. First, the player opening the pot for a raise should generally be a loose-aggressive player. This means that on average, he will not be raising with premium hands. Therefore, he will most likely fold to the squeeze play. The other main reason why he is most likely to fold is that he not only has to worry about the big raise, but he also has to worry about the player who is left to act behind him. For these two reasons, the opening raiser will fold a majority of the time.

The player who flat-called the original raise is also likely to fold because if he had a strong hand, he most likely would of reraised instead of flat-calling. He probably flat-called because he thought he would have position in the hand, and did not have a premium hand. For this reason, the flat-caller is most likely to fold as well.

This play can be extremely useful to a player when done correctly. When looking at the example above, we see that the big blind who was the player that executed the squeeze play, won 650 chips (6.5 big blinds) pre-flop without showing down his hand. He increased his stack by more than 40% and could have easily had either 7-2 offsuit or AA. When the situation is right, it is generally a low-risk, high-reward play.

The only warning that must be told is that the squeeze play has become a popular play. Because of this, players are starting to flat-call opening raises with huge hands like Aces and Kings, expecting a squeeze play. The player with aces or kings will then win a huge pot. Therefore, before carrying out a squeeze play, make sure the second player, the flat-caller is not tricky enough to do this.