Part I of this series can be found here. This is an article about chipping up in online MTTs.

Mid levels:

Manipulating the squeeze play

The squeeze play is becoming more and more popular. It’s something that the good players have had in their bags of tricks for a long time, but now many more people are becoming aware of it and many more people are trying to utilize this very effective play. For those that aren’t familiar, a squeeze play is when we have a raiser and a caller before us with sufficiently deep stacks, such that they are not committed to the pot. The idea is to put in a big bet or push, with the reasoning that the caller probably does not have a huge hand since he has flat called and not reraised and that the original raiser will need a premium hand in order to call our big bet, as our bet shows extreme strength being able to come over the top of the 2 players already in the pot. Your cards really don’t matter here but the situation is what allows for the play to be successful. As such, this play is often attempted with far less than premium hands or even with complete disregard for the squeezers cards. Now, sometimes we find ourselves in this situation where a squeeze play is warranted, if the original raiser is a good player, one who is well aware of the squeeze play potential here, and we actually have a very good hand like AA or KK. Here we want to represent a squeeze play with a big bet and hope that the original raiser recognizes the situation as ripe for a squeeze play, further reasons that we don’t need much of a hand to make this play, and goes ahead and calls with a decent but non-premium hand, which we are way ahead of.

Similarly, we can set up a good, thinking player to squeeze us when we hold a premium hand. Say we have an early position, loose player come in for a raise, we have a big hand and one or more strong, aware players behind us. We can just flat call here with the hopes that the good player will recognize the situation as ripe for a squeeze play and reraise here and fall right into our trap. Of course we run the risk that he won’t fall for our trap and worse yet he flat calls along with one or more of the blinds. This is exactly what we don’t want with our big hands but our hand is disguised very well if this happens, which itself can lead to us taking a big pot later in the hand but we must be careful, and the risk is worth it in many cases if the situation is right.

These early and middle stages of MTT’s, especially ones with deeper stacks are much more analogous to cash game play than to traditional tournament strategy. At least that’s how I like to look at it. You have some ammunition when stacks are deep. No reason to just sit around and play tight and let that ammunition go to waste as the stacks get shallower. Many of these plays are just not relevant once the blinds escalate to a certain point and M’s start to shrivel. But, in the beginning of most tournaments you have at least some room to get out of line once in a while and try to stack your opponent. You can even lose 80% of your stack early, making some failed plays, and still have a workable stack. Obviously not ideal but the point is to use some of your ammo making these plays to attempt to get a stack that will put you on your way to the final table. Don’t just sit around waiting for something to happen.

Late levels:

One mistake I see people making here is telegraphing when they have huge hands. I’m referring to late tourney situations with low M’s for everyone and you are in essentially push or fold mode. Don’t make the mistake of letting everyone see you push here and there to stay alive as you should, but then all of a sudden you pick up a huge hand and you make some small raise other than a push. Play it exactly the same way they’ve seen you play your other hands and push. This is the only way you are going to double up with his hand, and if it happens to get shown down, you might pick up a little more fold equity with your later pushes getting a little more respect. If it’s a situation where you would push with a mediocre or even crappy hand, push with your big hands too.

In general:

Be a contrarian. This is a smart way to be because as my dad used to always say to me “people are dumb” (actually the quote was “people are assholes”, but the concept is the same), and most people are dumb. So do the opposite of what most people do or expect you to do. This is true for the stock market, sports betting, and almost any situation where there is some element of competition vs. a large # of people. So if you flop a set, bet out. Don’t check and leave open the possibility for them to figure out you have a set later in the hand. If you bet out a flopped set on a non-scary board most people will never put you on a set. Versus an aggressive player sometimes just call his open raise with your big hands, disguising the strength of your hand, then reraise, if the flop permits, after his continuation bet on the flop. This is also effective versus good players who will base their play upon your perceived range of hands. If you make some non-standard raises or calls, this will throw off their calculation of their equity in the hand and might cause them to make an incorrect play. Changing up your play is extremely important.

Overbet the river. This is especially effective if you can represent the great donkey move of pushing a missed draw. This can be risky but say the LAG raises preflop and you call with a pair and flop a set. The flop comes with a possible flush draw and you just call his bet on the flop and/or turn. He checks to you on the river that does not complete the draw. Now overbet and see if you can sucker him into calling with his top pair or overpair.

Don’t be afraid to make big calls. Be careful doing this versus known, good players, but against an unknown opponent, if his big bet just doesn’t make sense and seems fishy, make that big call if your gut says this just doesn’t add up. Sometimes you will be wrong but the propensity for people to try and bluff is just too big. I’ve said it before but I firmly believe that big laydowns are overrated in MTT’s. Of course they are warranted sometimes but we are playing for the win and a big bluff from a bad player is too big of a chance to pass on.

Some of these plays I am advocating fall into the trap of someone playing a non-standard way and this is why I say you have to be very careful making some of these plays versus a good, thinking player. But, again, most people are not good, thinking players, and their plays mean exactly what they seem to mean.

Now, maybe someone else can write an article relating to end game, short-handed and heads-up play so I can learn to better keep ahold of these chips that I’ve accumulated by using the strategies outlined in this article and finish the deal.

Fwiw,
phatty