Part: Part Five - Betting Before the Flop
A light squeeze
Pre-flop
A loose cutoff opens, the button flat-calls, the small blind folds, and you're in the big blind with 8♠7♠.
Raiser-plus-caller, and you hold 8♠7♠ in the BB. Best?
WhyThe flat-caller told you something when he only called - no big pair, no A-K, or that money would already be in. A loose opener on one side and a capped range on the other means a large three-bet folds them both out often enough to print. Eight-seven suited is the hand you want: no showdown value to give up, but connected and suited so you flop equity the times someone continues.
What happensThis time the opener wakes up with a real hand and calls, the flop misses you, and you have to let it go. That's fine - the squeeze only needs to work often enough to profit, not every time. Sell fold equity long enough and some nights it gets bought; the play was still correct.
You don't need a premium to squeeze - a raiser plus a capped caller lets a big three-bet with a suited connector show a profit over time. It won't get through every time, and when it doesn't you give it up cheaply; the edge lives in how often it does.
A raiser plus a flat-caller is a squeeze setup - the caller can't hold a monster or he'd have re-raised, so fold equity, not your cards, is what you're selling.