| Small ball poker betting techniques
allow you to play more hands while limiting the risk that you’ll face during a hand.
These strategies are best utilized in deep stack tournaments that afford you more chips
with smaller blinds. It’s an aggressive style where you bet and raise minimum amounts
in an attempt to steal pots without risking a big percentage of your stack. You get to
pick up lots of pots that no one has hit, and you don’t dump too much when you do run
into an opponent with a big hand. The small ball
betting also allows you to get some value on your good hands without giving away the fact
that you’re holding a monster. Opponents will interpret your small bet as your usual
play, and will be more apt to stay in the hand with a weaker hand because they won’t
give your bet any respect. After that you can back off the betting and let them take the
lead in the hand. Let them bet into you before you make your value raise.
Good small ball poker should include the odd larger bet.
This bet sends fear through you opponents who will usually give you value for a big hand.
These larger bets usually work the best on the turn, if it looks like your opponent is
weak.
These small bets also give you good odds on your drawing
hands because opponents will usually only call your bet and not raise you back. The option
is to check your draw and be faced with a difficult call if your opponent bets a larger
amount. |
