Playing against Small Ball Players
Small ball poker is one of the strategies that has really taken off in the game of poker in recent years. Small ball players use frequent small bets and raises to be aggressive yet avoid risking any substantial amount of chips unless they’ve got the nuts. Defending against this tactic is actually pretty tough too since they can control the pot size this way and also read your hand well.
Because of the fact that small ball poker is tough to play against, you’ve got to have a good strategy for defending against it. And the first step in defending against small ball poker is knowing how to spot the people who are using it. When you’re playing against a small ball player, you’ll notice that they will make a lot of small raises and bets while also calling and checking a lot to control the pot.
The reasoning behind this method is that they’re skilled players and they want to keep pots smaller so they don’t have to risk much to play with less skilled opponents. Sure you could let these people get away with their small ball tactics and move along, but it’s also a risk because they can just sit back and see as many flops as they want until the nuts come along.
So when you identify a small ball player, you’ll want to make big raises and even go all-in at times when you are isolated against small ball players. The reason for doing this is because small ball players hate being forced to commit large amounts of their chips to a single hand. When you make them risk something large, they’ll normally fold. On the other hand, you need to watch out for other players in the hand so that you don’t bust out yourself or lose major chips concentrating on the small ball player.