Small Ball No-Limit Hold'em Play

The phrase “small ball” as applied to the game of no-limit hold’em means betting a small amount of money relative to the pot size. Poker players who like to watch televised poker tournaments tell me that a lot more players nowadays prefer to wager small amounts of chips. Is it time for you to follow this trend? Let’s take a closer look at small-ball betting.

To know what is considered small, one must know what is considered the norm. I do not consider the normal betting sizes in a typical no-limit cash game to be normal for any other cash game. In a $1-$2 blinds game, initial raises to sums like $10, $12, and $15 occur quite often. In most larger games, a raise to three or four times the big blind is the usual fare, and a raise to more than five times the big blind is a rarity. I consider it to be a small-ball raise preflop if it is less than tripling the big blind. I normally triple or quadruple the big blind when making a preflop raise, but do not turn my nose up on a smaller raise than that. It is more important to look at who you are and how the preflop raise fits into the rest of your repertoire. I do think that a person who uses a small-ball size preflop raise needs to be strong at reading the opponents, and be aggressive at fighting their way out of unpleasant situations. If you are not winning pots by driving people out, then you will need to play adroitly.

The reason I myself like a slightly bigger raise size is I play very few starting hands (when in a cash game), usually have a good hand when raising, and like to charge a decent price for someone who wants to play a longshot and get lucky. I also like to narrow the range of opponents’ starting hands, but have to say I am not so successful at driving out opponents preflop. I face the same array of ugly hands from certain loose opponents as you do, regardless of raise size.

For a flop bet, a lot depends on the texture of the flop. If the board is paired, making a full house possible, there are often probe bets made that are smaller than normal. The same goes for boards where there is a three-flush or three-straight on the board. There, you are not being so vigorous to shut out a draw, because there is already the possibility of a complete hand. If there is a flush draw or a straight draw possible on the board, the bets are often somewhat larger than normal, to make it harder for a drawing hand to stay in contention.

My own flop betting policy is to bet a lot of flops when there are not too many players seeing the flop. It is not so easy to flop a hand that can take pressure as some people make it look. So I tend to make a lot of probing bets to see if anyone is interested enough to be a contender for the pot after the flop. My bet size usually ranges from forty percent to eighty percent of the pot size, depending on how likely it is that I will be facing a drawing hand. If called, I would rather face a board with a flush-draw than a straight draw. A flop like Q 7 3 is more suitable for my purposes than a flop of J 10 6. The first flop has only nine cards that can make a possible flush; the second flop has any card larger than a six that does not form a pair (24 cards). Most of the time when I bet the flop, I have only a pair. One pair does not want to be taking any heat in the betting, and usually folds when raised. Therefore, I am not inclined to run down a player who pops me on the flop. It seems to me that when your game plan is to bet a lot of flops in the hopes of stealing them without a fight, you are better off betting only a modest amount of money, and backing down when you catch some heat, than to play a more committal brand of poker. So I think small-ball play is a very reasonable way to play for your flop strategy.

Small ball on the turn is a totally different matter, and is going to cost you a lot of pots that could have been won by a larger wager. That opponent with the straight draw who had eight outs twice, the opponent who had a flush draw with nine outs twice, and many other opponents are now down to their last shot at the pot, and cannot call a big bet on the turn. If you get called, the opponent is either on a real big draw or has a good hand. But he did not raise you all-in (I am assuming there is still a lot of money left to wager). So if there was a flush draw on the flop, he either has a big combination draw, or he has a good made hand but is worried about you having a better one. You are at a point in the hand where small ball ought to be banished from your repertoire. It is check or blast time for most hands.

On the river, if your turn blast got called, you have to decide what your hand is worth. Sometimes it is right to bet big, other times it is right to bet small, and you may want to check if you think you have the best hand but will not get called by a worse hand. A big bet is often not your optimum move, because whatever your opponent has, he no longer needs to be blasted to prevent a drawout on you.

The bottom line is I think that small-ball preflop and on the flop is a decent strategy, and a small river bet may be appropriate in quite a few situations. But small ball on the turn I believe is an inferior way to play poker if there was a draw on the flop that did not get help on the turn. (If there is the possibility of a complete hand on the turn, a small bet can easily be the appropriate strategy.) When you believe you have the better made hand, or there is a good possibility that your opponent is drawing and did not help, the price to play that you charge should be high enough to win the pot immediately against a majority of hands. Do not play scared poker when you are on the verge of a victory. Many players are afraid to check, for fear their opponent will take the initiative with a big bet, but are also afraid to bet a large sum. So they make a wimpy-size wager that may induce a raise. Even a call leaves them in a river predicament, out of position and not knowing what sort of hand they face.
The small-ball turn bettors are players who tell a lot of bad beat stories. ♠

Bob Ciaffone’s new poker book, No-limit Holdem Poker, is now available. This is Bob’s fifth book on poker strategy. It can be ordered from Bob for $25 by emailing him at [email protected]. Free shipping in the lower 48 states to Card Player readers. All books autographed. Bob Ciaffone is available for poker lessons.