BBZ’s guide to the squeeze play in poker tournaments

The TV poker cash games you grew up watching were peppered with squeeze plays. It’s likely you still frequently see them in your local No Limit Hold’em games.

That’s because less-experienced players are far more likely to call a raise pre-flop than they are to re-raise themselves.

But just because squeezing isn’t as common as it once was, that doesn’t mean it’s not a weapon you should have in your poker arsenal. Even in 2021, you’ll often find yourself in spots where deploying the squeeze play will be a highly profitable manoeuvre.

What is a squeeze play?

In our article ‘3-betting vs calling: Why flatting wide sucks’, high stakes crusher, BBZ coach and Twitch streamer Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet tells a story about a friend of his who is very unpopular down at his local casino because while they all love to call and see cheap flops, he frequently raises or three-bets pre-flop.

This is called a squeeze play.

A squeeze play is a three-bet after there has already been an open and one or more callers.

One of the most famous examples of a squeeze play can be seen in the intense $676,900 pot between Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey from High Stakes Poker Season 6 (the one where Dwan triple-barrel bluffs with nine-high and Ivey goes deep into the tank with fourth pair).

Check that out below:

After Phil Laak opens to $3,500, he gets three callers in Eli Elezra, Phil Ivey, and Daniel Negreanu. The action is then on Dwan. “Here it comes: $40,000,” predicts Antonio Esfandiari, recognising that Dwan is a similar player to the friend apestyles described.

He puts in the squeeze play, making it $28,900.

What does a squeeze play accomplish?

In the hand you’ve just watched, Dwan has 8♠9♠ – a nice hand with great potential, but not necessarily a hand you’d think would want to build a huge pot pre-flop.

So why is Dwan putting in the squeeze? Well, first of all, if he can get all the other players to fold he will pick up a healthy pot without ever needing to see a flop.

Second, Dwan is aggressive and would rather thin the field than see a cheap flop himself, much to the chagrin of the other players. If he can narrow it down to just one caller, he’ll have a significant range advantage heading to the flop.

There are downsides too, particularly when you have a weaker hand as Dwan has.

If multiple players call Dwan’s squeeze, he’ll still have the range advantage (he was the major aggressor, after all) but it would weaken with every other player in the pot. Besides, in this example, he’s in the big blind and will be out of position versus anyone but Negreanu, who was in the small blind.

He might also face a four-bet, particularly from Laak who raised first-in. That’s not the case in this hand, but had Dwan faced a four-bet, he would have been in a tough spot having already put so much money in the pot.

How Jordan “bigbluffzinc” Drummond approaches the squeeze play

In the incredible BBZ Bundle, BBZ features a video in which he goes in-depth on multi-way squeezing using his own hand histories.

“When I think about squeezing, I don’t think about squeezing,” he says. “The first thing I think about is how to call and what type of hand properties I want for calling.”

“The second thing I think about is the fact that squeezing requires good hands. You have multiple players [in these pots] and when you have multiple players multiple things can go wrong. You can’t squeeze with crummy hands.”

So, the first thing BBZ considers after seeing an open and one or more callers is what hand properties are good for calling with.

It’s quite simple: “We don’t want hands with medium-strength draws. [We want hands that can] draw to the nuts.”

Let’s say you’re on the button and there has been an open and a call. You have to figure you’re likely to have a four-way pot, because if you just call it increases the likelihood of either the big blind, the small blind, or even both making the call as well. They’re getting a great price to do so.

Having the ability to flop the nuts with your hand becomes more important the more players are in the pot. So that means to call you’re looking for hands like pocket pairs which can flop sets (“If we flop a set, even in a four-way pot, it’s likely to be the best hand”), as well as ace and king-high flush draws.

You don’t want a one-pair hand in a four-way pot.

So when you have a middling hand, what can you do?

In PioSOLVER, hands like j♥q♥ and K♠9♠, for example, are mixed between calling and raising. “When hands are mixed between calling and raising, it’s telling you that calling isn’t much better than the alternative,” says BBZ.

“If a hand draws to the nuts well (A♦10♦ or j♣k♣, for example) then I’m calling. These are high-equity hands and I don’t want to three-bet fold them. They’re much better played as calls.

“If a hand doesn’t draw to the nuts well, I’m likely to consider it as a squeezing candidate, as long as it’s a strong enough hand.”