New to SmallBall

[Ronin Talken]

I actually agree with KTeller here.
I just flat the raise in position with TT-QQ, looking to disguise my hand and outplay my opponents postflop. It puts you in a lot of marginal situations, because you are disguising your hand and your opponent will be value-betting himself a lot. Frankly, you just have to trust your post-flop skills. You're refusing to get it in with a small edge, and you're refusing to open yourself up to a situation where you're priced in. If you can navigate your opponent's range though, or as Negranue seems to prefer, soul read your opponents, I think flatting in position is the better play.

[Michael]

3x or 4x before the flop, then i normally check for pot control.
Like trying to get people to fold pre flop then not showing tells on the flop.

[drewlovesomaha]

Most of you sound very inexperienced, especially the original poster. Please remember that ideally, you are playing small ball when you feel that you are superior to your opponents in post flop play and you understand all the concepts that Daniel is putting forth. Small ball play is not an advantage to less experienced players, in fact quite the opposite. You should be playing more of a "kill Phil" philosophy and betting large enough amounts to price your opponents out of drawing hands and also trying to end the hand on the flop or pre-flop. Also, small ball is extremely effective tournament strategy, but you have to be playing very deep stacked poker in a cash game for it to be effective (your opponents need to be deep stacked also) For example if you are playing 1 and 2 dollar blinds and everyone has bought in for 100 or 150 you are going to find that once someone has raised it and gotten several callers - if you flop a strong hand you are going to want to play it aggressively and take down pots or force your opponents to commit all their chips when you have the best hand. I think it is dangerous to try to play like Daniel or Gus or Phil Ivey when you do not have the seasoning that they do. Stick to a tight aggressive style and if you want to learn small ball do so in tournaments, where it is most effective anyway.

[minstrel55]

I'v found against weak passive players adding an adjusted version of small ball is extremely profitable in cash games. I've got no problems open min raising preflop with my entire range, slightly tighter than the normal small ball range. I've done this a lot and on the loose passive tables I almost never get three bet. Ok, so I'm 4 ways to the flop with AA. In small stakes cash games, you'll be 4 ways to the flop if you raise 2X or 5X, so save yourself some money until you know where your shaping up.

Also, the point has been made and I agree, you can't play this strategy unless you play much better post flop than your oponents.

Small ball is most effective in deep stack tourneys, but I've found that a slightly tighter version is great especially preflop in smaller stakes cash games. The players simply aren't paying enough attention to counter my playing by 3 betting with a wide range when I min raise. Gives me more chances to flop huge hands and build a large pot.