The Squeeze Play

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The squeeze play has a bit of a daring and clever feel to it. It’s a bluff (or semi-bluff) perpetrated against not one, but several opponents. Someone bets, one or more players call, then you raise. When it works, you feel like a champ, and you rake a big pot. When it doesn’t work, “Oops.”

Here’s a quick-and-dirty squeeze example:

You’re playing $5-$10 with $1,000 stacks. A loose and aggressive player makes it $30 to go. Two average players call. You’re in the big blind with Q 6 . You raise to $150. Everyone folds, and you pick up the pot.

The squeeze is a terrific weapon, and it’s one that every no-limit player should use. At first blush, it seems risky, since you’re trying to bluff a number of players at the same time. If any one of them calls, you’re toast. But actually, its risk/reward profile is often quite good. Here’s why:

1. Since you’re bluffing after a bet and several calls, the pot is bigger than a “usual” bluff. In the above example, there’s already $105 in the pot when it’s your action. Your bluff is $110 to win $105, so it only has to succeed about half the time to be profitable.
2. After you get past the initial raiser, often the callers will go down easily. Calling tends to put an upper limit on hand strength. For instance, the loose-aggressive raiser could have pocket aces (though he would raise with lots of hands). The first caller could also possibly have aces, but it’s less likely. And the second player is even less likely to have aces. After all, few players would flat call with aces after a raise and a call. So once you get lucky and the raiser folds, the callers (who could only call the first time) often go down easily.
3. The initial raiser is “squeezed.” That is, while the callers will usually fold, sometimes they’ll be sitting on a monster (or sometimes they’ll just be stubborn). If the callers didn’t exist, the raiser could call with position, closing the action. But since they do exist, the raiser could call, only to get reraised or overcalled. That danger might induce the initial raiser to fold a marginal calling (or reraising) hand.

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