Want to enhance your chances of winning in an online poker game by getting good pot odds in your game? Try out the squeeze play with the below poker tips.
Regardless of whether you play poker for fun or as a competitive game, you would always want to win. Isn’t it? If you have played this game for some time, you would have realized that both victory and loss should be anticipated outcomes in poker. Hence, smart players in online poker will always focus on maximizing their winnings and creating enough opportunities for winning. This is where an interesting tactic like the ‘squeeze play’ comes into the picture.
The squeezing technique (a three-bet) involves you making a re-raise preflop after you have seen a raise as well as one or more callers. It can enable you to leverage the great pot odds since three out of the four possible outcomes are good for the player executing the squeeze. This will help you to get more chips when you play poker online. Being one of the aggressive poker tips that can create more opportunities for maximizing your winnings, squeezing needs to be tried out with caution as it can be a double-edged sword. If you don’t identify the right situation for implementing the squeeze, you may end up losing a few chips unnecessarily. So, let us have a look at some of the best tips to consider before executing the squeeze technique in a poker game.
Determine the Appropriate Sizing for Your Raise
Squeezing, as a technique may be old, but it remains one of the most effective tips for poker players who want to enhance their winnings. You might agree that squeezing is primarily attempted for one of the following actions from opponents:
- Having the other players on the poker table fold their cards
- Getting the other players to call so that you can take out more chips from them against your strong hand
But, if this squeeze play strategy is not working well, it might mean that you are unable to use the right sizing. You should consider your position on the table, your reputation, as well as the type of your opponents while choosing the appropriate sizing. Ideally, your squeeze can be at least four times the original open such that other players interested to call do not get a great price. If you are certain about a few players who would call, then you can even pick sizing to be about five to six times. If you are in a good position where you can pounce on the mistakes made by your opponents and even chase their draws, you can go for smaller sizing.
Determine Your Range of Hands
One of the important poker game tips is to have a good amount of clarity about the hands with which you can attempt the squeeze play at the online poker tournaments. Of course, when you have strong aces (an Ace with a King or a Queen) or big pocket pairs, squeezing would be a great option to get more chips from your opponents into the pot. There will also be hands which may not be good enough, but instead of folding them all the time, you may find it profitable to go ahead with a three-bet because of your better position.
Consider Your Position on the Table
As is the case with most poker strategies, your position plays a vital role in determining whether to squeeze and how to go about it. In fact, your position plays an equally important role in deciding your hand range for applying the squeezing technique. When you are in the last position, you can even squeeze against speculative hands as you are likely to have the position advantage even at the post flop stages. Thus, such a position helps you to see more flops than you usually can from any of the early positions.
By opting to squeeze on few more suited hands (involving Aces), you can possibly get your opponents to fold up better hands. When you are out of position, you may sometimes choose to squeeze more to take the initiative and attempt to close the hand there itself or go into continuation bet mode (when you have a large chips stack to play with).
Be Bold
“Fortune favours the brave” – this phrase is rightly applicable in the case of players who confidently use squeezing without worrying about those active players who open a lot of pots in online poker. You cannot operate with the fear that such players may not fold their cards. Contrary to popular belief, you will witness your squeeze leading such players to fold.
Be Ready for 4-Bets
At the beginning of this article, we spoke about how three of the four outcomes for squeezing are quite favourable for you as the online poker player applying the squeeze. When you go for 3-bet, you might have that player on your poker table who chooses 4-bet. In such a situation, you could be left with a tough decision to make with a huge pot on the line. You need to understand that 4-bet player, his bet size, and also the pot odds before taking a decision. For example, with high-value hands, you might find it better to go all-in.
Final Thoughts
Remember that squeezing is considered an aggressive style of play and you need to use it selectively. The above-mentioned parameters need to be considered and well thought out before you decide to go for the squeeze technique when you play poker online. The ideal way is to try this technique in real-time gameplay by downloading MPL Poker and playing your preferred online poker game variant!
