squeeze play

[mgsimpleton]

depends on what's at stake... here i'd say 100BB's... like his raise here would be to 150 or so and pot commits him on the flop and given all the dead money it is more likely he is making this play... and given it is 1/2 of co's stack and co isn't stupid and knows that he raises a lot, i think he'd take a half stack gamble with AJ+ given the situation.

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I think that's the right answer to the wrong question. OP said he's trying to improve his game out of the blinds. This is a fairly "creative" move, and goes against the standard ABC.

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The unstated conclusion to my post is that this is not the time to try to work on his game in the blinds. Reraising out of position in this situation is just not a good idea. His cards and his stack, as well as his discounted look at the flop dictate a call here.
I also don't really think raising out of position with this many limpers is very creative. Improving one's play out of the blinds doesn't simply mean raising with mediocre hands. If it was just the original raiser and everyone else folded to him them maybe I would contemplate a raise, but with this many limpers and his stack the size it is he's just hoping everyone that called the original raise (as well as the raiser) have mediocre hands. Just my opinion, could be wrong.

[creedofhubris]

200 preflop, push flop, isn't bad.

If you can afford a rebuy, you'll get killer action in future!

[gomberg]

Thanks for all the replies.

In the hand, I had recently lost some money and wasn't aware how short I was until I clicked RAISE to $250. Everyone folded quickly.

I usually reload after I lose a hand but for some reason forgot to at this table.

As far as calling here, the cards really didn't matter. How often is TJo going to outflop better hands? Not too often. I saw this as an opportunity to take down a decent sized pot. I think if I have TJs, there is some more merit to calling, but I really didn't care what cards I had. The EV of raising here had to be more than calling in my mind. The original raiser was raising too much at the time, and everyone behind him knew it, so they should have reraised with a decent hand. Also, my stack is just high enough that people who put in $35 would be risking another $565 to see showdown - how is this not deep enough if I have a tight image?

[gomberg]

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If it was just the original raiser and everyone else folded to him them maybe I would contemplate a raise, but with this many limpers and his stack the size it is he's just hoping everyone that called the original raise (as well as the raiser) have mediocre hands. Just my opinion, could be wrong.

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The beauty of a sqeeze play is that it makes the original raiser fold a wider range of hands than if it's heads-up. Also, the people who called in the first place would need an excellent (slowplayed) hand - which isn't likely - or an excellent read on me (also not likely), or be a complete fish (none were there), to make that call. This play had a huge probability of success.

If it were heads-up, the pot isn't that big and it's easier for the original raiser to call.

[mgsimpleton]

"wait for a better spot" haha i love it, i just used my favorite response ever.

all i´m saying about the short stack is you can almost be sure that if CO had a hand like AQ+ 99+ (amending claim before about AJ+) he´s pushing... IMO. usually he won´t have those hands if he´s raising this often but since he knows he´s raising this often, making this move with a half stack is way more likely to get called by those marginal group 1 ish hands than with a full stack. in this case he obviously didn´t have anything so it worked out. i just think the chance this succeeds in this spot with your stack is like 70% whereas the chance it succeeds with a full stack is 90%. so while 70% is still +EV (not factoring postflop decisions), i would probably want to have a full stack before trying it... you will likely get a similar situation in the future and it´s one of those things you can only really do once in a while.

maybe i´m wrong but i dunno, i was playing so tight the other day and i did this against a 50BB stack with crap who pushed all in with AJo, so it´s quite possible that one clown has made me think the whole poker world is a circus. or something. anyway, nh.

[gomberg]

Man, that's rough w/ the AJo - can never forget the donk factor. I agree that having a bigger stack is better - but not too big, cause then they can still call you w/ implied odds... or for the purpose of outplaying you later in the hand.