Every self-respecting poker player will instantly admit his or her push was mistimed, directed at the wrong villain, done when the M's were still in the green zone, or simply done with the wrong hand. Yet, this happens all too often, and I have regularly caught myself tilting at moments when there was no need for it, because my stack was still sufficient or because I could just take an hour's break without gambling away my chips.

Especially in the bubble in MTT's I lean towards too aggressive play, because my opponents all want to end up in the money and are thus vulnerable. At these moments I try to secure my profit in advance, as it should be done. The thing I however did too much in these situations was bluffing. Being caught empty can be advantageous in future hands, but when in the bubble you can well do without it. At those moments you would simply want to pick up the blinds without running too many risks. The ideal strategy to do this is Smallball Poker.

Most players will be familiar with the above mentioned situation and most of us have been guilty of taking too many risks in trying to steal a pot. Daniel Negreanu, Gus Hansen and occasionally even Rolf Slotboom play their smallball mainly to steal a pot or to trap an opponent, and should the flop be missed then the hand can be mucked cheaply. Without any big risk!!!

Smallball originates from baseball. In stead of longball (hitting the ball as hard as possible to make a homerun), the ball is hit softly and placed between pitcher and catcher in an attempt to reach first base just in time. This requires lots of precision and skill, but simultaneously decreases the risk to miss the pitch completely. This makes smallball naturally less spectacular, but its effectiveness cannot be underestimated. What then has this to do with poker?

Smallball poker comes down to the same thing: in stead of making huge raises to pick up only a few pots, the smallballer also raises his marginal hands, beit in a less spectacular size (2 to 2,5 big blinds). Very important in this is to be be well versed in position play and to fully exploit this skill. Here's an example:

You're in the BB and are facing a smallballer in second seat, who makes it two blinds preflop. All other players fold. You decide to call with AQ suited. The flop brings K-9-8 rainbow. You are well aware of the smallballer not always having a big hand, and it's exactly this that makes him so dangerous. Connectors, low and middle pairs, this guy will play anything without blinking an eye. You decide to check and the smallballer in second seat makes his modest C-bet of half the pot. He may have nothing, but why would you take the risk? A fold is fully justified here.

This is the way a smallballer builds his stack slowly, without taking too many risks. Should you hit a monster on the flop, then the smallballer will still make his C-bet, but he will instantly recognize any resistance in the form of a checkraise or even a flat call as trouble and give up the pot, cutting his loss to a minor one.

In order to profitably play this strategy, you will have to be an experienced post flop player, since you will have to assess if your 7-9 is good enough on a flop of 4-9-K.

This explains why smallball is mainly played in position, when these decisions are easier to make since you have already got information on the other players. Also, you will hardly ever see a smallballer move all-in, and should this occur then you can quietly fold as the smallballer will only show you the absolute nuts in a showdown. This is often difficult to discern when you don't know the player to be a smallballer, since smallball is also the perfect way to set traps and exploit these at the right moment (part 3 of the movies here below show a perfect example of this).

Watch Daniel Negreanu showing perfectly how smallball works:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdJVLZHh1Fo
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxlujfwUUh8
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D9aJhO9QiQ