New to SmallBall

[Anthony C]

Hello all, I'm Anthony C and new to the forum. I'm also a reader of Daniel's book(Power Holdem Strategy). I have a question about smallball. Do I only want to call and raise from the button? I understand position but when it comes to playing smallball playing on the button is that the only place i want to plat to build my stack?:confused

[Praetorianoctem]

hey man... one question... aside from folding , what other options have you got?

[Praetorianoctem]

[epsmul]

Small ball is mainly played from "in position", so that usually means playing from late position. Daniel himself is usually pretty active on the button, so maybe that is where you are getting that from. He also says that ideally you want to play every hand in position against the BB. Also, playing smallball requires you to play a large number of hands, so you won't just be playing on the button.

[KTeller™]

the biggest part of SB, that ive taken from the book and Daniels post/blogs/talks.. is you have to get your 'reading' skills above avg. you have to know where to put your opponent and when to lay down a hand.. 1 pair is never good to the river IMO. Knowing your giving ppl the chance to draw and catch up and when it does, you dont get ****y.. you just fold and move on.. its not playing big pots, but playing and winning a ton of small ones.

[Anthony C]

Thank you for answering so soon. I understand being the first one in with big pairs-middle pairs-and small pairs I should make a small raise(2.5xbb-3xbb) when opening the pot.
Also open with suited connectors. Do I only want to call raises in position so i may be able to out play my opponents on the flop?

[KTeller™]

honestly, this all varies on the opponent. those are things that you will have to adjust to. personally, i will not raise with big pairs preflop and only light min raise with middle to small pairs when in position. all raises will be min raise to 2.25-2.5 x the current blind. calling raises in and OOP will all vary on the amount of the raise, the player (you) and your opponents.

[Ship_It]

"personally, i will not raise with big pairs preflop"


Kteller, this has to get you in trouble a lot of times..am i correct? Seems like you have put a raise out there with jj or better preflop...anything else is suicide imho.

[Anthony C]

I've been reading his book also I think I've been going wrong by raising 2x the bb every time it's my turn to act. Is this wrong? I figured If I'm going to make ppl think I'm a maniac I should play that way. I think the whole thing about position got me confused. from Daniel's book-Playing Against a Reraise. For the most part, if you are playing small ball, you'll be entering a lot of pots, and in a majority of those pots, you'll be coming in for 2.5 times the bb. Obviously you are going to run into various situations where you'll get reraised either by a premium hand, or (when people just get fed up with the fact that you won't stop raising their blind). Reading this made me think that is the way I play small ball. Please help me out. I have to learn how to do this right. Anthony C

[KTeller™]

Originally Posted by Ship_It

"personally, i will not raise with big pairs preflop"


Kteller, this has to get you in trouble a lot of times..am i correct? Seems like you have put a raise out there with jj or better preflop...anything else is suicide imho.

early in a tournament with a huge stack, no i will not reraise or make a drastic raise w/ JJ, 10's , etc.. the blinds are way to low and the risk vs reward is way off set for me, this is a personal choice, but i just would rather be able to make the adjustments through out the hands and i do play the same hand in the same spot differently if i am in first level or if i am in higher level w/ antes and bigger blinds.