Poker Small Ball

[BRANCASLIM]

Hi everyone!! A few days ago talking about the game with a partner, he told me about the "small ball" strategy when I told him that for microlimite mtt tournaments he was trying to bet in order to keep the pot small or small. Often this will be done by making minimum or lower bets (uderbetting), checking when the usual could be betting, and "only calling" when someone seems to have a hand worthy of a raise. " The goal of the small ball strategy is to have a high percentage of opportunities to play big pots, and at the same time, avoid playing big pots that require a lot of analysis. I think he was putting this into practice without having a very deep understanding of that strategy. These days I am looking for articles and trying to introduce myself in a better way to the subject, what I consider positive in my way of playing is the fact of being able to recognize the game of my rivals and have a good reading. It seems to be a somewhat complex strategy. How many of you are aware of this? have you ever applied it to your game?

 

[Edu1]

I've heard of it, I think it was Negreanu and Akkari who first talked about this strategy.
I haven't applied much yet, because some concepts of this strategy are very different from the normal style of play. I will study more about.

 

[BRANCASLIM]

Yes, I know that Daniel Negreanu is one of those who work and I use this strategy despite the fact that many concepts are from before. I think it would be very useful to be able to apply it perfectly to avoid unwanted situations in which we greatly compromise our stack . If you find quality articles do not hesitate to recommend them, at the moment what I have read is scarce and somewhat confusing.

 

[Eric Salvador]

In micro stakes online or $1/$2 live you can use this with success but there’s better ways to play that will result in larger profits. Many pros have gone away from this approach because it is easily exploited. You should focus on GTO then transition in to a hybrid of GTO and exploitive play.

 

[NicoVlopez]

Very interesting. Personally I think it would be useful in very specific situations or against a certain type of opponent. Also i would have to read well to understand how it is applied. I'm more of the adaptive game looking for spots to apply certain play against a certain type of player. What is clear is that poker is dynamic and perfect strategies of the past may become less effective today, and new strategies previously unthinkable today have more results.
The important thing is kept updated.

 

[BRANCASLIM]

Thanks for your comments!! I will take into account the reference that there are strategies that can generate greater profits like the GTO, which I have not really studied. I haven't changed my strategy in a long time and I think it's time to renew and implement new strategies. CHEERS!!

 

[BRANCASLIM]

I think we would all like to get to play GTO, I just know that I could try to make fewer mistakes, but even then it would be almost impossible not to make them. This is why I plan a strategy that is more protective of our stack, such as that of small ball, or that at least makes us reduce the costs of our mistakes, nowadays I believe that the vast majority opts for an exploitative game and perhaps this is the best way to get more value out of our hands. On the other hand, being somewhat exploitative can be positive in micro limits as there are many recreational players playing tight and many others that their very loose game will allow us to confront them more and place them in very favorable situations for us.

 

[ritz_avalanche]

But I think the the biggest drawback of GTO is that it assumes the villain also plays GTO strategy which is not always the case

 

[Zaksdad]

In micro stakes online or $1/$2 live you can use this with success but there’s better ways to play that will result in larger profits. Many pros have gone away from this approach because it is easily exploited. You should focus on GTO then transition in to a hybrid of GTO and exploitive play.

I think it's Negreanu's main style of play ... admittedly he's at the top of the food chain, but I don't think he gets exploited much and he plays some fairly tough games ...

 

[BRANCASLIM]

I think that if you want to go far you have to be versatile and be able to adapt easily and quickly to each situation in the game, which for each limit is going to be special, that's why I think that you start to manage and apply a variety of strategies from the beginning or Low limits is something that will eventually pay off.

 

[carmenzu]

Small-ball poker is a term that was made famous by Daniel Negreanu, the most winning tournament player of all time with $32.4m in earnings. He has been credited with perfecting the style of play known as small-ball poker, but what is it? And how can you start using small-ball poker strategies in your Texas Hold’em game today? Read on and find out…

https://www.pokerstarsschool.com/lessons/how-to-play-small-ball-poker/1543/



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[BRANCASLIM]

Carmenzu

I also have to use the google translator and I think that if it were not for the advantage that this tool gives me, I would not be on this site, I finished school more than 10 years ago and from that moment I did not use the English language anymore, I have almost completely forgotten haha. I'm going to read the article you passed me and I'll keep looking for more about it to perfect my game. Thank you!! greetings from Argentina!

 

[theRaven68]

Small-ball is a term that was made famous by Daniel Negreanu
small-ball is a style of play for tournament poker that allows you to protect your stack at all times while continually looking for ways to win pots from your opponents with the minimum of risk

 

[KristaK]

hi hi :ciao:
please what is the purpose of it?
is not the strategy to get the most chips?

 

[BRANCASLIM]

Hello Kristak, with this strategy you can have better control over the size of the bets and you will not risk your entire stack, you can also hide your game a little, it would be about giving a little action to your opponent so as not to increase the size of the pot as much when our hand is decent and we want to play it.

 

[AllenKll]

The problem with small ball is that it puts you in a lot of spots where you have to make tough decisions.

hitting that middle pair... what do I do? Should I call? Should I raise?
Hitting bottom pair.
hitting top pair with a shitty kicker
hitting top pair with a 7...

these can all be tough spots that, if you've played millions of hands and know exactly how to run them out, then it's no problem. But if you have to think about every single decision every time, it gets very taxing and will tire you out quickly.

So, is it a good strategy? Maybe, but probably not for someone that hasn't been playing professionally for a decade.

 

[BRANCASLIM]

It is fine what you say, but part of the strategy would be just to check or call, you should not raise with medium or low pairs to avoid placing yourself in a difficult situation, if the size of the pot is low it will cost you less to abandon that type Hands and you will always have the possibility to see the turn and river at a low cost if it is what you decide, if our rival or rivals show us a strong hand or that we believe superior to ours, we just have to fold.

 

[Ricardo_lhp]

I believe that in the micro this strategy does not work so much since the players are paying and you are just making a good price for them to achieve equity. But I think it can be used in some situations like when you have the second pair and are out of position, then you go out of low donk bet to block the action of some villains, or else use it against an aggressive player with a hand that doesn't have than to extract, then you apply a low bet for him to raise and you extract more chips.

 

[NWPatriot]

Small-ball is a term that was made famous by Daniel Negreanu
small-ball is a style of play for tournament poker that allows you to protect your stack at all times while continually looking for ways to win pots from your opponents with the minimum of risk

There is a lot of value in this style of play, in my opinion. What matters most in a tournament is our stack. We will get into tough spots, no matter what style we play. If we get into these tough spots with a 3% stack investment rather than a 10% stack investment, we will be better positioned when we have an opportunity to win some real chips. Of course, everything is dependent on our opponents.

I have calculated for myself the optimum risk we should take for any particular equity (win probability) value we might have, and it is not what many people think it is - it is much less.

 

[BRANCASLIM]

Hello everybody!! I have tested the small ball strategy these days playing only one tournament and I really liked it, not compromising as much with the pot is useful when we talk about tournaments, you can have a better reading of the rival and the table, until it becomes a little unpredictable and you have more chance to bluff. I will continue using it and every so often I will vary with some other style of play like the GTO and something more exploitative. For now I am satisfied with my improvements and the decrease in errors. CHEERS!!

 

[MikeCarasone]

I am a big fan of small ball poker strategy. It seems no matter how good of starting hand I have I seem to lose 70-80% of the time in 50k big pots. I rather wait until I have a made hand than flip since I haven’t been on the proper side of variance in those big flips. I am better equipped to assess the hand post flop. Rather start small, then increase the pot when I see the need. We all know the horrors that AA has given us all in preflop. After all, it still is only a pair. Single Pairs don’t always win and small ball allows me to determine if I should get away from them, especially on scary boards.