When to squeeze?

I don't like squeezing in scenario 1 -- OOP vs. a TAG with those hands is not ideal.

Scenario 2 is more reasonable, and even more so w/ the EP raise scenario.

Of course, everything depends on stack sizes, opponents, etc. Really too vague.

1) hands its a call good show down equity out of position but not overly strong and I don't think are in your squeezable range.
2) I would 3! for sure probably around 3.2x and I almost always go for a strange number here like 67$ or 69$ I believe it gives more pause to thinking players that like to calculate EV situations to call and are most likely going to put you on the big three AA, KK, QQ or AK suited a little over representing with this size.

It depends on the situation. I prefer good suited cards or hands like AQo or JJ. ATo/KJo gets dominated too much in a big pot. With 99-JJ/AQ/AJs, it is very situational. In that case it is mostly for value figuring you have the best hand.

Hand 1: Difficult to answer without knowing more about the CO and the SB, but I definitely want to 3-bet T9s and ATo unless either has an overly narrow limp-calling range.

Hand 2: Again, it's difficult to answer without knowing more about the cold-calling ranges for the players in the middle, or if "loose reg" also has a wide UTG raising range. Although I don't like calling raises in the BB, with the hands given and the number of players already in, I'm probably just calling with all three hands.

Need more info but all of those hands could easily be good candidates

Scenario 1 the positions matter here and are in your favour. I'm squeezing ATo and T9s here pretty much always, and occasionally KJo but probably more often folding it if my game is on point.

Scenario 2 is more subtle - you say 3 callers in between. Had there been 1-2 callers then I'd be exclusively squeeze-or-fold but when there are 3 callers the odds to call become quite enticing. With 3 callers I'm probably squeezing JJ and mostly just calling KQs and AQo, but it's not set in stone - with only 2 callers in between I'm squeezing these pretty much 100% and also it depends on how loose UTG is opening. I wouldn't quibble with anyone who wanted to squeeze all these hands. Folding AQo wouldn't be horrible either although pretty nitty.

Assuming 100bb deep+,

1) T9s is squeezable if the raiser is isoing pretty wide on the button and has a fair amount of folds there. If there is rake it's closer to a pure 3b or fold. Without rake calling or raising is fine. If there is rake ATo is probably mainly a fold, maybe low frequency 3b. Without rake ATo is close between 3b/call/fold. KJo is mainly just going to be a fold. Maybe very low frequency 3b.

2) Probably best to squeeze all of these hands, especially because it is a looser reg and most people are very capped when they flat. In theory they should be trapping with hands like AKo and QQ sometimes, but since they are probably never doing that, squeezing is going to be very good here.

You have to be mindful of stacks sizes, probably don't want to 3b more than 25% of effective stacks, but you definitely want to be going for max fold equity here.

Thank you!

I just wanted to make sure I was in the ball park in regards to what hands and situations are good for the squeeze.

there's too many variables and so I think the better question (and what you are really asking) is "what types of spots should I be squeezing" and unfortunately the answer is also broad strokes because the input is broadly defined.

fundamentally I try to think about basic principles: "am I hoping they call with a worse hand?" "am I hoping they fold a better hand?"

OOP with a meh hand is tough even with a skill edge against the field of low stakes players, KTo is hard to play MW OOP.

My advice is stay linear and start with premium (obv AA is squeezed no question in any scenario) then slowly introduce AJs and KQs then when you've got live reads and are more comfortable introduce J9s and KTo type stuff. Be aware difficulty scales up rapidly so your light squeezes will make postflop play MUCH more difficult.

The two biggest factors when considering a squeeze (in this order) is the original raiser's range and the effective stack sizes. We need to have enough ammo to navigate flops, turns and rivers when necessary (since we miss most of the time, so it needs to be expected before we even make the bet).

I would flat 9hTh and raise the other two or folding to a stronger range (*almost* never flatting them)

It would depend on the UTG player's range. Even most loose players tighten up UTG. But assuming he's still wide, I would most likely flat KQs (unless he's very wide), raise or fold AQ (depending again on his UTG range) and flat JJ unless he's much wider than a normal UTG raisers range.

It's pretty much the same, the only difference is we raise a little more when OOP.

I’m not sure how you are defining “squeeze”. Some of the hands you list (esp in scenario 2) are simply value 3-bets.

A squeeze is basically a preflop semibluff opportunity. I consider it a “light 3-bet” with more dead money in the pot due to an in-between flatter who likely has a middling range. It is best employed against a loose opening range as our preferred outcome is generally folds. Squeezing against an UTG open is therefore less advisable than against a LP open.

Need adequate stack depth. Want to use same principles as light 3-bets. We shouldn’t use hands we would regret “wasting” having to fold to a 4-bet. We want to use hands with blockers to hands that may dominate us and/or those that can fold out hands that dominate us.

The other consideration is our position and the initial raiser’s 3-bet reaction tendencies. Do they call too much OOP? (If so we should have a more linear and less polar squeezing range). Do they over fold? (if so we can widen our squeezing range) Do they 4-bet light? (if so, we want to be careful with hands that benefit from seeing a flop and widen our potential 5-bet value shoving range)

Scenario 1 - CO open limping appears weak. So does the BTN's small raise over the CO limp, with the blinds left to act. The SB flat call is also weak. Generally, when our opponents appear weak, it's going to be a good spot to 3B-squeeze from the BB.

That said, whether or not we can raise with ATo, KJo, or T9s is going to depend on more than just our hand. For example, what are our opponents' tendencies when facing a 3B, and what are the stack depths?

In a vacuum, I might 3B with all of these hands, or none of them.

Scenario 2 - If we're sure the reg is opening too wide UTG, and three people call, this may also be a good spot to squeeze. But here again, we want to know what our opponents' tendencies are, and what the stack depths are. Is it possible that some of the players who called may have flatted with a stronger hand, knowing UTG is opening too wide?

AQo, KQs, and JJ are all reasonable hands to squeeze here. I'm probably 3B'ing with all of them, unless I have a good reason not to.

Scenario 3 (we're on the BTN, facing an EP raise + a few calls, or several limps) - generally, I'm in favor of punishing limpers and flat callers by playing my entire range as raise or fold, where I'm raising with a linear range, but I'm generally doing that from every position that is NOT the BTN or the BB.

From the BTN and the BB, I'm going to have some over-limps and over-calls. That's not to say I'm never squeezing from the BTN or the BB. I am, but I'm doing so with a more polar range.

Before we squeeze, we should have some sense for how our opponents are playing, whether or not we have a skill advantage post-flop, and if there are weaker players we want to keep in the hand.

I'm less worried about going multi-way when I'm on the BTN than I am when I'm in the BB. But even in the BB, when we flat call, we can represent a lot of hands that connect with a lot of flops, which is harder to do when we 3B pre.

Squeezing isn't a matter of your range. It is a matter of the other players' ranges. The first condition is that the original raiser is raising light. In a 1/2, 1/3 game, very few players are raising light. Many of your villains don't see AK or JJ as raising hands. The second condition is that the callers are calling with anything that plausibly could hit a flop. That happens fairly frequently. Your goal is to win the hand on the flop. Therefore, I'd squeeze with any hands under those 2 conditions with anything that you would otherwise simply call.

What about winning the pot pre-flop, and avoiding rake? I'd think that has to be at least equal in terms of our preference for outcomes when we squeeze, especially from OOP or with a moderate strength hand.

So you're willing to lay for example 175 dollars to win 55 by taking it down pre (and hoping everyone folds, which is in itself the biggest mistake) just to save 5 bucks?

You shouldn't really be needing to adjust how you play a particular hand because of how much rake you might save. You make your money on these hands when they call you and fold otf, and you make even more money when they fold ott after calling a flop bet. It's becomes almost like an art as you get more and more successful, especially if you're playing with the same players pool you should know who you want to call a 3bet and whow you don't want to because they either auto flat or re-raise. Against these types of auto protecting players we should tighten our range or flat multiway hands, and fold hands like AQ or even TT sometimes depending on the openers range, stacks, odds, players and other things.

Oddly extreme example.

The examples in the OP were pots of $33 to $60 following a $15 open. We don't need to 3B to $175 to take the pot down. In most low stakes games, 3B'ing to 4x from OOP, plus 1x for each caller, is going to take it down very often.

That could be $75-$90 in the first example, and $120 in the second example. Both seem like reasonable plays to me.

The rake + drop in my 1/3 game is $7. Winning pots pre flop and avoiding rake adds a lot to our win rate. We're not just avoiding the $7 if we take this down pre. We're also winning the rest of the pot without a contest.

Your assumption appears to be that we'd always win the pot post flop, when the pot will be bigger. But clearly that's not the case, especially when we'll be OOP, and in these examples, multi-way, if we just flat call. More often, we'll flat call pre, and we'll be the ones giving up post-flop, when we miss, and our opponents continue to bet.

That is, unless we're calling pre with the intention of bluff-raising when we miss. But if so, I question how that's better than bluff raising pre, when the pot is smaller, and we're risking less.

I'm folding everything pre that I can't 3bet (AT, AJ, AQ, etc) and only calling multiway hands if the pot or IO's are good (ATs, KQs, PP's, etc.)

would squeeze all #2, none of #1; ATo is too light vs TAG, all three of these hands are easily dominated, and we can choose much better A suit combinations.

Both AQo and KQs play fairly well as flats multi-way, so Hero doesn't need to squeeze 100% but both hands are strong enough to raise.

Rake should be a huge factor in how you play your hands. You're underestimating how good it is to take a pot down pre. Most hands you will be raising at any point preflop whether it is to open raise, flat, or 3bet will have an EV overall less than the money you win when everyone folds. In the first hand you win 11bb if everyone folds, and in the second hand you win 20.5bb if everyone folds. In game where 10bb and hour is crushing and we win 25-30 hands per hour, those are significant wins. QQ+ are the only hands in those spots that will have definitely higher EV than the amount you win when everyone folds. Hands like AKs and JJ are probably very close after you consider postflop edge weaker opponents, but vs regs of similar skill to you those hands prefer getting folds.

In docvail's game, the rake is 2.3bb. That is huge when you consider that the EV of squeezing most hands is going to be less than 1bb.

Yeah, you also make money by cbetting flops and taking it down, but let's say in hand 1, q limper, btn opens 15, sb calls 15, you squeeze to 75, you get 1 caller on the button, heads up to a flop that is 161 after a $7 drop. You cbet 80 without a made hand. Let's conservatively estimate that villain overfolds and folds 40% vs our cbet. With 0 equity, we auto-profit $16.4 from our cbet. If we took it down pre, we would have won $33.

Of course this is way oversimplying things, because it ignores equity, barreling, etc. But when you really dig into things, when we're 3betting with hands like KQs, KJs, and even hands as strong as AKo, getting folds is generally going to be an above average result.