In the past five years, the squeeze play has become one of the most common plays in no-limit hold’em tournament poker. It was first brought into the limelight by Dan Harrington in his excellent ‘Harrington on Hold’em’ series of books, in addition to the squeeze play he pulled off at the final table of the WSOP Main Event in 2004. In that hand, Josh Arieh opened the pot for a raise with K-9 offsuit and was called by eventual champion Greg Raymer who held A-2 of clubs. Harrington was on the button with 6-2 offsuit and made a large reraise. Harrington had been playing conservatively up to that point and his raise was given a lot of credit. So much so that David Williams folded A-Q in the big blind. Arieh and Raymer followed suit and Harrington picked up a large pot.
The squeeze play can be incredibly effective for several reasons. First, it shows extreme strength. A prerequisite of the squeeze play is that there are already two (or more) people in a raised pot, and to make a reraise in this situation a player is usually going to need a very good hand. Second, it is effective because the initial raiser has to worry about the player who called his initial raise. If they have a marginal hand like A-J or K-Q, they are usually going to toss their hand thinking they are well behind. The raise in effect ‘squeezes’ the other players out of the pot, hence the name.
Squeeze saturation
However, due to the proliferation of the squeeze play it is given less respect than it might have had in the past. It is almost at the point that most players automatically assume a player is making a move in a squeeze situation. This doesn’t mean that it is a useless play though – far from it. If you have shown the ability to make a squeeze play with a legitimate hand and your opponents have seen it, the opportunity is likely there for you to do it on a bluff. This is why it’s important that if you are going to squeeze with a marginal hand you should also do so with a monster. Without any information on your play, most opponents will base their belief on what they perceive the average player to do – and give you credibility for having a big hand.