How to Play Small Ball Poker

 

Small-Ball Poker involves deliberately playing in such a way as to keep the pot small, minimizing your risk of losing your entire stack in any single hand. This approach will both decrease your overall variance and increase the role of skill in the game – the chances of losing your stack to a miracle river card go down. Playing small ball poker involves good hand reading skills and astute betting. This article shows you the basics of this approach and how to profit from small ball poker.

See the Flop

The first consideration in playing small ball is to bet less before the flop. This keeps the pot relatively smaller on later betting rounds – since those later bets are usually sized as a proportion of the pot. A raise of 2 ½ times the big blind is likely to have a very similar effect on the actions of your opponents as a 3 ½ or 4 times the big blind raise. However if we look at the effect on the size of post-flop bets, especially on the turn and river, then these become significantly smaller.

Pot Size

Keeping the pot small in the early betting rounds will enable you to slowly gain a better understanding of your opponent’s hand. This makes position more valuable in small ball poker than when the bets are larger – there is simply more time for your good position to benefit you when betting is over several rounds. Combine this with the ability to gain cheap information (since you kept the pot small on early rounds) and you have a winning proposition.
Managing the size of the pot must take into account the texture of the flop. For example if there are many draws present then betting too small an amount may in fact give your opponents the correct odds that they need to continue with their draws. If you have a drawing hand yourself then a small flop bet from position may enable you to take a free card from position later - if you feel that the table dynamics warrant this.

Switch it Up

Employing a small ball poker strategy must be balanced with the occasional larger bets. This is because it may be difficult to build a very large pot when you hit a monster hand if you have employed an exclusively small-ball strategy. Escalating the size of the pot only after you have made a monster is most consistent with this style. After all betting big with only aces and kings (for example) pre-flop would give astute opponents too much valuable information to use against you.

Managing the size of the pot on later streets will often involve checking behind with a hand that is likely to be the best at the moment. While this carries some risks that an opponent will hit their hand, these risks can easily balance the benefits of the small-ball approach. If an opponent holds a pair under yours after the flop then they are 23-1 against improving to trips on the turn card. If they hold an ace then there are only 3 ‘outs’ in the deck that can destroy your hand.

Conclusion

To summarize, small ball poker involves deliberately playing in such a way as to keep the pot sizes small. This is used when you feel you have a skill edge over your opponents that will show over time – after all anyone can get lucky during a single hand. Betting less pre-flop will ensure that the pot is smaller on later betting rounds, giving you more time to read your opponents hands. Checking behind or betting smaller amounts on later streets will often depend on the board cards containing likely draws.