Small Ball or Donk play?

I watched a short vid of kid poker demonstrating small ball. I believe I carried it out pretty well here. Some may just call this a lucky donk play and stupid to try.
True that it helps with a lucky flop, but when you get it you get paid off well.


PokerStars Game #31642357272: Tournament #187309903, $2.00+$0.20 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VII (50/100) - 2009/08/14 22:27:24 ET
Table '187309903 6' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: Jeremiah5 (5038 in chips)
Seat 2: Green Goo (2942 in chips)
Seat 3: gratefulchuk (1926 in chips)
Seat 4: MoneyTreeInc (6415 in chips)
Seat 5: 2dumb2fold2u (4502 in chips)
Seat 6: ekimray (4705 in chips)
Seat 7: phenshyre (3070 in chips)
Seat 8: bfilomeno (4631 in chips)
Seat 9: Nung_05 (6360 in chips)
Jeremiah5: posts the ante 10
Green Goo: posts the ante 10
gratefulchuk: posts the ante 10
MoneyTreeInc: posts the ante 10
2dumb2fold2u: posts the ante 10
ekimray: posts the ante 10
phenshyre: posts the ante 10
bfilomeno: posts the ante 10
Nung_05: posts the ante 10
2dumb2fold2u: posts small blind 50
ekimray: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Green Goo [2s 4s]
phenshyre: folds
bfilomeno: folds
Nung_05: folds
Jeremiah5: folds
MoneyTreeInc said, "i thought you were to dumb to fold"
Green Goo: raises 150 to 250
gratefulchuk: folds
MoneyTreeInc: calls 250
2dumb2fold2u: folds
ekimray: folds
*** FLOP *** [Qc 2h 4c]
Green Goo: bets 450
MoneyTreeInc: calls 450
*** TURN *** [Qc 2h 4c] 4♥
Green Goo: checks
MoneyTreeInc: checks
*** RIVER *** [Qc 2h 4c 4h] 4♦
Green Goo: checks
MoneyTreeInc: bets 5705 and is all-in
Green Goo: calls 2232 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (3473) returned to MoneyTreeInc
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MoneyTreeInc: shows [8h 9h] (three of a kind, Fours)
Green Goo: shows [2s 4s] (four of a kind, Fours)
Green Goo collected 6104 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 6104 | Rake 0
Board [Qc 2h 4c 4h 4d]
Seat 1: Jeremiah5 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Green Goo showed [2s 4s] and won (6104) with four of a kind, Fours
Seat 3: gratefulchuk folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: MoneyTreeInc (button) showed [8h 9h] and lost with three of a kind, Fours
Seat 5: 2dumb2fold2u (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: ekimray (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: phenshyre folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: bfilomeno folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Nung_05 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Yea, i think you played perfect small ball there. You tried to pick up the pot cheap preflop, its not your fault you hit the flop hard.

You can do such a move if you are very good after the flop and in reading other players...
And you need to have a lot of chips.
Otherwise throw those hands away!

I love it when I turn a full house, then improve.
I hate it when I river a flush, and the donk has 4/2 to beat me.

As for the play, a raise into an unchallenged pot with any two cards is totally acceptable as long as you have reason to believe they will fold.

This^^^^ but...on the other hand. Small ball is meant for deep stack play, and since you are the second lowest stack (if I remember correctly) at the table, raising w 24 suited is kinda spewy, cause basically, you just got lucky. Im not saying it was horrible...you need luck sometimes, but the one time you turn a boat and river quads, probably wont make up for the other thousands of times you are just throwing your money away.

This hand worked out for you and you were paid off by your opponent. But, the question that matters is how were you going to play the hand when you get called and hit nothing or bottom pair? If continuation bets are being routinely called at your table, then you'll have invested a lot relative to your stack size to find out your behind and he won't fold.

I was planning on one c-bet. If called I probally would have given it up. At the time I wasn't getting any cards so I felt like I had to try to get some chips instead of blinding out. I had position and no one had opened yet so I thought it might be a good time to try small ball. I would have preferred a bigger suited gapper but thats what I was dealt so I went with it.
Long story short. I made it to the final table.

The problem is, as said already, you were in bad shape and if this didnt hit you, you were going to be even worse off. I watched the same videos here at CC. But what I took from it is that with small ball its not just the hand. Its building the image that your a maniac and then catching the cards when your opponenet pushes to get his entire stack. So it has to be played over a series of hands.

However, with him pushing with nothing it would have only taken an A to beat him. So you may have been building up to this point. * In which case you played it perfectly!

I agree with this comment. I like playing small ball, but only at a table that I have been getting good hands on a regular basis. In my opinion, small ball works best heads up against another unmade hand, followed by a beneficial flop. If I can't isolate other players by raising, then I have to get very lucky (which almost never happens).