Category Archives: Full Ring Tables

Small ball poker is a playstyle where your aim is to get involved in many cheap pots and keep those pots small – unless you hit a monster hand and then you build the pot as big and as quickly as possible. This was largely popularized by Daniel Negreanu, and to a lesser-extent Harrington’s books, and is a style adopted heavily by players evolving from fishy play.

As you watch this video or read this entire guide, note that the goal is not to insult players that use this style. Heck, I used to implement a small ball strategy, and my training videos before 2014 reflect that. Instead, the goal here is to explore the pros and cons of small ball poker and get you thinking more deeply about both playing this strategy and exploiting other players that use it.

Why Poker Players Like Small Ball

The overall concept of small ball is a mixture of three things: getting involved in lots of cheap pots preflop, avoiding getting involved in big pots postflop without monster hands, and trying to get monster hands paid off for maximum value.