The squeeze play

During the 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event final table Dan Harrington pulled off an audacious bluff that is now commonly known as a squeeze play. The move is very effective if executed properly but it also carries with it a massive risk of costing you a lot of chips if it goes wrong.

In the hand Josh Arieh raised to 225,000 holding Kh9s and was called by Greg Raymer, a big chip leader, who was dealt Ac2c. The action folded to Dan Harrington who, holding one of the worst hands in Hold’em in 6h2d, raised to 1,200,000 leaving himself just another 1,120,000 chips behind. Another player folded and then David Williams folded AsQc before both Arieh and Raymer also folded, leaving Harrington with a 600,000 chip profit.

On the surface this looks like a reckless bluff but in reality it was an amazing play based on number of factors. Firstly, Josh Arieh had been opening a lot of pots in the past few orbits so his preflop raise was not necessarily a sign of great strength. Harrington correctly decides that when Raymer flat calls he is doing so with a wide range of hands so he pulls the trigger.

As Harrington decided to squeeze poker hand strength is irrelevant although most players would prefer to attempt this move with a hand that was more robust but because Harrington has a reputation for playing very tight his large raise could quite easily be a hand like Aces or Kings. Add to the fact he leaves himself with under a pot-sized bet in his stack, indicating he is prepared to go all-in, meaning anyone who calls is not only calling the 1,200,000 bet but Harrington’s entire 2,320,000 stack, his bet looks extremely strong which is why David Williams folded a hand as strong as Ace-Queen.

For the squeeze play to be successful the table dynamics need to be perfect as they were in Harrington’s hand. You need to have a relatively tight image and have not shown down many sub-premium hands recently and both your own stack and that of your opponents needs to be at certain size so that it looks like you are prepared to go all the way with your hand and that by calling your opponents risk a large percentage of their own stacks. As mentioned, the play is a great way to pick up chips in a tournament but use it sparingly otherwise you could be left in a spot where you are putting all of your chips in the middle with a marginal hand.

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