Premium hands are simply few and far between when large pots are at stake. Tournaments are won by aggressively going after smaller pots with a range of starting hands. The trick is learning how to do that without becoming reckless.

In small ball poker, you’ll need to widen your starting hand requirements beyond pocket pairs and A-K. Here’s how to do it.

This may surprise you: In deep-stack tournaments, ace and paint hands like A-J, A-10, K-Q, K-J, K-10, Q-J, Q-10 and J-10 are significantly stronger when they are suited. So much so, in fact, that it often makes the difference between calling and folding these hands.

Daniel Negreanu has always been my favorite poker player. Kid Poker just has the right attitude about everything as well as the skill. I’ve been aware of his small ball poker theory for a while now and I kind of have a feeling of what it was after seeing a few videos, but I never really truly grasped the concept due to lack of information mostly. The term “Small Ball” was popularised by professional poker player Daniel Negreanu. What exactly does it mean? More importantly, can it be used to increase our earnings at the poker tables? Small Ball poker is characterised by the following -Playing lots of hands preflop - Using small bet-sizings postflop - Looking to steal a lot of pots. Small Ball Poker สไตล์การเล่นประจำตัว Daniel Negreanu Kenji กลยุทธ์ชั้นเซียนในการอ่านไพ่คู่ต่อสู้. Daniel Negreanu has often been called the unofficial ambassador of poker. His charm mixed with highly instinctive and effective play make him a huge fan-favorite. He is one of the highest-grossing tournament players of all-time, with winnings of more than $9 million. This is a discussion on Small Ball Strategy with Daniel Negreanu within the online poker forums, in the Learning Poker section; its what I play along with pros like Daniel Negreanu.

K-10 offsuit, for example, is a hand that ends up making top-pair hands rather than hands like straights and flushes. That result doesn’t mesh with the small ball poker approach. One pair hands, you see, rarely win big pots. But when you play them incorrectly, they’ll often cost you big ones.

One hand in particular, K-J, is known as the rookie hand. It looks tempting but it’s nothing but trouble. This hand has mowed down more hometown heroes than any other. You’ve been warned!

With any ace and paint hand, however, it’s more than okay to throw in a raise if you’re the first player to enter the pot. Proceed with caution; your goal is to win a small pot. Be prepared to fold if someone raises ahead of you – unless you are suited.

The extra outs that suited cards give you allows you to win pots either by making a flush, giving you the chance to semi-bluff, or even flopping a flush draw and catching a pair at the river to win.

Now, ace-rag suited hands, like A-3, A-4, A-5, A-6 and A-7, only have value in their flush potential and if they make two pair. Flopping a pair of aces is a good thing, too, but don’t commit yourself to a big pot with top-pair and a lousy kicker.

Go ahead and attack the blinds with an ace-rag suited hand if you are the first to enter the pot. However, if you get any resistance, calling a reraise with a hand like Ah-6h is suicide.

Watch me play and you’ll see me play suited connectors, like 5c-6c and even 4d-7d. These hands are ideal for the small ball approach.

Remember, the goal of small ball is to make straights and flushes against top-pair hands. Suited connectors deliver this potential, plus the opportunity to make two pair and trips.

The key to the success of small ball poker, and in particular, suited connectors, is that your opponents won’t be able to put you on a hand. Think of it in terms of fishing. You’re putting a little worm at the end of a pole and looking for a big fish to bite.

The other benefit to playing these types of hands is that they are generally very easy to get away from. You might decide to take one more stab at the pot if you don’t hit the flop, but if you still don’t get lucky, well, suited connectors just aren’t worth much more.

Finally, trash hands, like Q-3, J-2 or 9-4, should only be played in a few very specific situations, for example, when you’re trying to steal a pot with a pre-flop reraise. When attempting this play, however, you must have the discipline to take your one shot before the flop and play with caution thereafter.

Only look to play small pots with trash hands and lose the minimum if you are beat.

Visit shop.cardsharkmedia.com for more information about Daniel Negreanu’s newest book, Power Hold’em Strategy, from Cardoza Publishing.

© 2009 Card Shark Media. All rights reserved.

The world’s most successful tournament competitors, like me, Phil Ivey, Erick Lindgren, Phil Hellmuth and countless others, like to play small ball poker.

It’s a style that we use to steadily increase our stacks in no limit hold’em tournaments without having to assume significant risk.

The first thing you’ll notice when you watch a player who uses the small ball approach is that he appears to be in total control of the table, yet at the same time, seems to be playing with reckless abandon. It also might appear as if he’s giving little thought to the strength of his own starting hand.

Indeed, that is the case.

That’s because the theory of small ball poker dictates that you need to focus more on what your opponent doesn’t have rather than the strength of your own hand.

That being said, let’s take a look at some basic starting hand guidelines that should be considered before entering a pot.

Obviously, you’ll want to play big pairs like aces, kings, queens or jacks from any position. Also note that pocket aces and kings are good enough to play for all of your chips.

That’s not necessarily the case with pocket queens or jacks, though. Play these hands a bit more cautiously before the flop. Don’t feel compelled to reraise with these hands, either, especially against a player who already raised from early position.

Playing middle pairs like 10-10, 9-9, 8-8, and 7-7 can be difficult but only if you overvalue them and mistakenly play them as you would premium hands.

Small Ball Poker Daniel Negreanu

If you are the first to enter the pot with any of these hands, make a standard small ball raise – that is, bet slightly less in hopes of winning a lot more. Your goal with middle pairs is to win a big pot by flopping a set. Use caution, though, if you miss on the flop. In that case, be prepared to muck your middle pair if the action gets too hot and heavy.

Treat small pairs much the same way as middle pairs. Some players like to reraise with these hands before the flop because it suits their style. That, however, is not what small ball players do.

Now, A-K and A-Q might be sights for sore eyes in low buy-in, fast-paced tournaments but not in big money, deep-stack events.

While Big Slick is clearly more powerful than A-Q, trust me, you still don’t want to get all your money in pre-flop with this hand. More often than not, you’ll be on the wrong end of a coin toss. You can certainly raise pre-flop with A-K but it’s just not the type of hand that plays very well after the flop.

Suppose the flop comes A-9-6 and you bet your A-K. Frankly, you don’t want even one caller! Any player who tosses in chips could easily have A-9, A-6, 9-9 or 6-6, and you’d be dead on arrival. Unsuited A-K is simply a hand that will win small pots but is generally a dog if there is any significant action.

A-Q is much worse in every way possible. Not only are you almost certainly beat if you decide to play a big pot before the flop, there’s even more to worry about if you do get to see the flop. You’ll have the same worries you’d have with A-K except, in this case, you’ll have to worry about an opponent’s A-K too!

Small Ball Poker Daniel Negreanu

Stay tuned as I’ll cover additional small ball starting hands in upcoming columns including aces and paint, ace-rag suited, king-rag and queen-rag suited, suited connectors and trash hands.

Visit shop.cardsharkmedia.com for more information about Daniel Negreanu’s newest book, Power Hold’em Strategy, from Cardoza Publishing.

© 2009 Card Shark Media. All rights reserved.