Friday 27 September 2019

All About Small Ball Poker

All About Small Ball Poker
Small Ball Poker is a poker strategy that is used by top poker professionals in no limit Texas Hold'em tournaments. Many top professional poker players including Daniel Negreanu and Gus Hansen are regular proficient users of this strategy. It benefits players in a number of ways in the early parts of a tournament keeping pots small and allowing their skills to be the deciding factor in a  hand.
When you use a small ball poker strategy you aim to play many smaller pots to create a loose table image. Hands like 76 suited, KJ and other hands you may fold when you are playing a tight strategy become playable. By creating a loose table image you are making it difficult for opponents to put you on a hand. Using top professional player Gus Hansen as an example, he is known for being so wild that he could be holding anything. He is therefore often called with weak hands when he holds the nuts because opponents do not believe him. However, when he bets big he usually has a big hand and small ball poker helps maintain his deception.
I will boxing to explain how playing small ball works. Two fighters squaring off in the ring. A boxer using a similar strategy to small ball poker would throw little jabs and probe at their opponents defence rather than throw wild hooks and risk being knocked out. When he sees an opening (i.e. he has a strong hand) he takes aim for the knock out punch.
Small ball poker strategy recommends that  you probe pots with small bets. You should win plenty of small to medium sized pots to ensure you accumulate chips in the early stages of a tournament. If you are raised you can get away from the hand losing far less chips than if you played a more standard style with larger bet sizes. When you do get a big hand you bet on each street and hope your opponent incorrectly decides that because you play lots of pots you are betting light and your frequency of bets suggests you are a weak player.

0 comments:

Post a Comment