Squeeze

The squeeze play is one of the most effective preflop weapons in tournament poker. It exploits a specific dynamic: when a player opens and one or more players flat call, those callers have capped ranges (they did not 3-bet, so they are unlikely to hold premiums). The squeezer raises over all of them, targeting the dead money in the pot. The power of the squeeze comes from multi-way fold equity. The original raiser must worry about the squeezer's range and the cold callers behind them. The cold callers face a large raise with hands they already revealed as non-premium by flat calling. This combination means the squeeze gets through far more often than a standard 3-bet. Squeeze sizing is critical. A standard squeeze should be roughly 3x to 4x the original raise, plus one additional unit for each cold caller. So if the open is 2.5bb and there is one caller, a squeeze to 10-12bb is appropriate. The larger sizing accounts for the dead money and the multiway nature of the pot. The best hands for squeezing include premiums (AA, KK, QQ, AKs) for value and hands with good blockers and playability for bluffs (A5s, A4s, KJs, suited connectors). The worst hands to squeeze with are medium-strength hands like KQo or AJo that are too strong to fold but do not play well in a large pot out of position. Squeeze plays are especially powerful in MTTs because of the additional ICM pressure. Players with medium stacks are reluctant to call a large squeeze because the risk of a significant portion of their stack is tournament-threatening. This makes squeezes from the blinds against late-position openers and callers a bread-and-butter move for experienced tournament players.