Small Ball Poker

So right now I am experimenting with small ball poker with some heavy hits added into the mix for my tournament.

Small ball is a style most famously used by Phil Helmuth. In a single sentence, it is picking small pots, while avoiding big ones. Of course, I modified it to include some big pots.

What I would usually do is do my standard raise to 3x the BB and play relatively conservative poker. Sure I would raise up front with 44 if I felt that I could get away with it, but I really never got out of line unless I was in late position and the blinds were worth stealing.

So today I entered a 50 FPP tourney on Full Tilt to test something out. I sort of didn't really want to play it out (200 entrants and a 1st prize of $24+2 Token doesn't really seem like a good use of my valueless time). I got involved in a big pot were my QTo beat KK and then I just started chopping away. I would raise to 2.5x the BB and take down many pots without contest. I am pretty sure that I played 90% of my hands. I soon got my chip stack up to 4500. And then, I sort've lost it and played big pots when I shouldn't have. I didn't really care, but it was a fun experiment and when I miss 5 outer after 5 outer, I just can't win. :D

Emboldened by this strat, I decided to test it out on a SnG. I signed up for a $11 Turbo and doubled up my 1st hand when my AA outran 22 when the 2s open pushed on a 635 flop. And then I continued to chop away at pots (entering about 40% of the pots), but I added something new to my strategy. I was playing my draws hard, pushing all in and overbetting the pot. Here's a good example of me bringing out the big guns:

FullTiltPoker Game #867642582: $11 + $1 Sit & Go (Turbo) (5795208), Table 1 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:24:40 ET - 2006/08/05
Seat 1: RandomHero38 (1,645)
Seat 2: ponch3 (1,305)
Seat 3: UWEC OB (1,815)
Seat 4: ACTablerake (2,010)
Seat 5: CHEEKS (1,260)
Seat 7: AzBgPete (1,725)
Seat 8: allaboutheu (1,435)
Seat 9: XA_kid (2,305)
XA_kid posts the small blind of 25
RandomHero38 posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to XA_kid [6c Tc]
ponch3 calls 50
UWEC OB folds
ACTablerake folds
CHEEKS calls 50
AzBgPete raises to 100
allaboutheu folds
XA_kid raises to 300
RandomHero38 folds
ponch3 folds
CHEEKS folds
AzBgPete calls 200
*** FLOP *** [8h 9c Qs]
XA_kid bets 2,005, and is all in
AzBgPete folds
Uncalled bet of 2,005 returned to XA_kid
XA_kid mucks
XA_kid wins the pot (750)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 750 | Rake 0
Board: [8h 9c Qs]
Seat 1: RandomHero38 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: ponch3 folded before the Flop
Seat 3: UWEC OB didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: ACTablerake didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: CHEEKS folded before the Flop
Seat 7: AzBgPete folded on the Flop
Seat 8: allaboutheu (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: XA_kid (small blind) collected (750), mucked

I was fairly sure he was weak preflop so I made a position reraise, not really looking for either a call or a fold. I just wanted to make him make a mistake. He checks to me and I realize that I have a double gutshot. And what better way to win than to push all-in? I get maximum fold equity and people really start to fear me. While I was raising a fair amount of pots, the only big pot I played I showed AA, so I get a little bit of respect.

Pushing all-in with both your draws and your made hands is actually an interesting bit of game theory that is (or at least was) used by a famous online player, Spirit Rock. While I don't like to do that in cash games were you are a lot of blinds, I think that a small-ball approach in combination with these heavy hits might prove to be very effective in tournaments.

Of course, I'm sure that better players than me have prefected this method, there's really no place where I can just learn it, so I am having to learn it on my own. This will probably prove to be better because then I will be able to use it more effectively because I learned by doing.

I finished that SnG in 1st, having knocked out 6 of my 8 opponents in the process. Even though it was a turbo, I went heads up at the 100-200 level and finished it off at the 120-240 level.

One last thing. I am 2-1 in HORSE SnGs. Not heads up, but 8 person games. And by 2-1, I don't mean 2 cashes, I mean 2 1sts and 1 5th. Sure, it's a small sample size, but I feel pumped!