Live Squeezes

So I was thinking about this the other day... squeeze plays seem really good in live games because theres so much dead money from fish flatting all the time then folding like wimps to 3bets.



For example the other day, I pick up UTG+2 and raise to 35, 3 callers and then button makes it 150. We are both very agressive players and capable of making moves. I look at the 3 callers and i can say almost certainly if I flat this is going 5 way to the flop. Effective stacks were around 1400 so it was a really shitty spot for me because I dont THINK I can setmine profitably.


What do you guys like doing in this spot? Just fold, 4bet / fold? 4bet / call? flat? What about if you had something like AJ or TJs. I guess the other option is to tighten up alot in EP when aggros are behind you but thats lame.

I decided to turn it into a bluff and 4bet to 345, he 5bet shipped, I folded and as he threw his cards in I saw the bottom one was a Ten, so his range is definately wide but IDK maybe its unavoidable.

Feel free to move to Medium Stakes if this is too basic but there havent rly been many topics here. Ive been playing almost 100% live lately and might add some more when I remember what I wanted to discuss.

Just a slew of thoughts as a live player myself (both answering and not answering your questions):

4bet is just silly. It's made substantially less silly given that your 4bet is okay-ish sizing, but you literally do not need to play back with 55 here in this very spot even if he is squeezing you a ton. I guess you could make an argument for calling (though to be clear if you think this is gets HU a lot this is never ever ever a call). I mean come on, we're never 4bet/calling 55 so you're 4bet/folding vs AK or whatever bluffs he can have and you're leaking a ton of money and making fundamental theorem of poker mistakes

In fact, barring that it's against the most active of sophisticated players or it's against a pure maniac, there are many situations where you feel exploited live but is likely untrue due to the nature of full ring and the fact that you only see 30 hands an hour.

I do think squeezing is something people should be doing more. I guess the alternative is that most people prefer to play a taggy style and minimize variance and when you start popping to 15-20bbs every hand inevitably you get some callers (which are obviously fine) but the occasional hand where you squeeze and lose to some underrepped hand (e.g. a fish playing AK, TT-JJ etc passively) feels like a huge drain on your hourly.

Lastly, if hes shipping Tx (or even TT at best) to your UTG 4bets then he's clearly out of line and your response can literally be to wait for a decent hand and 4bet/call it off. Like I said, while this seems weak you literally do not need to be responding to every shred of aggression immediately due to the nature of full ring imo. If you're opening like 20% ep I'd say that's a little too loose anyway and yes you should be toning it down with active raisers in position.

Is this a 5/10 game? Or 2/5 or 3/6?

If everyone's stacks are over 1000 I think I'd call and setmine, expecting it to go multiway a decent % of the time. If there are any shorties I think the chance of a shove ruins the setmining play, and I'd probably just fold.

Would be interested to hear how people think the presence of shortstacks affects the EV of a 4bet however.

"I look at the 3 callers and i can say almost certainly if I flat this is going 5 way to the flop"

then its profitable to call

Why wouldnt you want to hit a set with 5 people in the pot? What makes you think someone who 3bet 4 players including your raise must be bluffing? What exactly is your goal when you have a hand like 55? Since when are calling stations good opportunities to 4bet bluff? BTW it's not really a squeeze when half the table has entered the pot. Who exactly are you squeezing?

id fold

call, setmine is good if u think 5 other players will play.

4 bet shoving vs a retardedly wide 3 betting range isn't a bad idea although I don't think this is really all that good either but given what I know about villain so far i think it's superior to 4b/fold.

but in general if there's someone that's that aggressive on the btn/blinds then it's prob a better idea to tighten up a bit and let him punt his monies into u imo.

As played as a general play i'd just fold, take mental note and move on. and also call like the others say to set mine if you getting calls behind you for sure.

I would usually call. ESP if other people are going to flat along. Also if you 4b you should 4b call, but I don't think I would ever be thinking about doing it in the spot you described.

You can call me Young Squeezy

Fuck the nits, can't win the pot if you fold!