Squeeze more

You should be squeezing more with small pairs not set mining with them, says Dara O'Kearney.

The easiest decision in the world is when one player bets, another one calls, and you are in late position with a hand that flops nicely like a small pair or suited connector.

Almost everyone will just call in that spot, with the hopes of being in for the min, but potentially out for the max.

The big thing we have learned from the solvers is that it is usually better to squeeze play in these spots.

Two things that solvers hate that humans do a lot are calling multiway when there has been a raise and a call, and also overlimping.

Do the thing everyone hates

Solvers always prefer a raise or fold strategy in these spots, they hate going multiway.

You are just going to be folding away too much equity if you keep calling in these spots because you have to play your hand more honestly, but if you get your hand heads-up, there are lots of ways you can win.

In practice, in real-life games, what tends to happen is the initial opener folds and the flat caller continues, which is great because you are now playing against a capped range which you can exploit.

If you are on the fence about squeezing these hands, just think about what you hate to see as the initial opener or the caller. You hate to see a squeeze most of the time.

Do the thing everyone hates to see at the table.

You can get Dara's free book on effective poker study by joining his mailing list.