VIDEO: Upswing Poker -- Doug Polk On Squeezing

Want to get better at poker? Looking to go pro playing no-limit hold’em or just tired of losing in your local home game?

Who better to learn from then two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and high stakes cash game regular Doug Polk.

Polk has teamed up with fellow bracelet winner Ryan Fee to offer the Upswing Poker Lab

The Upswing Poker Lab is a poker training course taught by Polk and Fee that is updated regularly with in-depth learning modules, theory videos, and a wealth of information to make you a better poker player.

Upswing Poker has teamed up with Card Player to bring you some exclusive poker strategy content. In this video Polk discusses the squeeze play in no-limit hold’em.

The basic definition of a squeeze play is when you are facing an initial raise and call and you take the opportunity to win the pot with a less-than-premium hand, usually in late position, by making a large three-bet. This move effectively plays your opponents against each other and makes it very difficult for them to continue in the hand.

“The first thing, when it comes to squeezing, is that you want to make sure to use a larger bet size than you might use normally. The reason is pretty obvious: both opponents are going to get the chance to flat [call] and they are going to be getting better odds with more money in the middle,” says Polk.

Polk goes on to discuss, in more specific detail, how your raise size will be changed when making a squeeze play.

“Let’s say someone opens to three [big blinds] and you are in position. [With a normal three-bet] you might want to make it nine, maybe ten big blinds with your raise. Now if they raise to three and someone calls, you might want to make it 11.5, 12 or even 12.5 big blinds to take into account that there is additional money,” advises Polk.

“Another attractive thing about squeezing is that when you do it, the player that flat called the first time around is very unlikely to have any strong hands. In fact, most of the time that player will never raise you because if the had a hand like queens or better or ace-king they would have three-bet the first time around. Because of this you mainly have to worry about the first player, but they might be a little less likely to get in the mix because there still is some chance the player behind could raise.”

Polk then goes on to talk about some of the other benefits and drawbacks of the squeeze play. Check out the full video at the top of the story for more of Polk’s analysis of squeezing in no-limit hold’em.

Sign up for the Upswing Poker Lab today for step by step instructions and examples to master both the fundamental theories and situational exploits to greatly increase your skill and earnings.

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