Small ball poker

Marcus Bateman / Marcus Bateman / 22 October 2008 / Leave a comment

The concept of 'small ball' poker seems to have first been mentioned regularly by Dan Harrington in his excellent series of no limit hold'em tournament strategy books - entitled Harrington on hold'em.

The problem with small ball poker is that a player constantly has to make difficult decisions with marginal holdings.

Small ball poker has also has gained increasing support from some of the most skilled players in the game - particularly from the excellent high stakes player Daniel Negreanu, who regularly discusses the importance of this concept to his game.

The term, although being applied to poker often these days, originated with baseball. In baseball it was seen as a way of getting home runs, not through the odd big hit that brought in one or maybe two runs as the ball flew out of the park, but by constantly playing shots that could enable a player to win one or two bases and slowly grind out the runs one and two at a time. The great advantage of this in baseball was that players were much less likely to strike out (due to not playing that much harder big shot), and this is what makes it such a good poker technique - it is simply much harder to bust when playing 'small ball' for a couple of key reasons.

The first is that small ball poker relies on picking up small pots often. This means that a player is rarely facing all in bets, and is thus much less likely to bust due to the fact that they are rarely playing that big pot with it all on the line. The second is that by striving to play less big pots, the overall variance of your stack is reduced. Due to the fact that you are often actively avoiding playing big pots with all but the best hands (some of the most extreme proponents of this tactic have even suggested that folding aces pre flop could be a sound move - simply to not have to risk their whole stack and be able to pick up chips later), the overall swings (and therefore the likelihood of busting) is greatly reduced.

So that's the good news. The bad news is that playing small ball well is much harder than playing the other key style - longball. The problem with small ball poker is that a player constantly has to make difficult decisions with marginal holdings. As you have to pick up as many pots as possible, you are often playing poor hands, which make it much harder to know where you are unless you are very skilled.

Do not be put off by this though, this style is great fun to play and learn, and is a much more stable way to win those tournaments - keep it small, play as many pots as possible and watch your wins grow big.

More Marcus Bateman

Small ball - A Deeper Analysis
The Art of the Re-Steal
Balancing your ranges
Flop texture

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