YES, and no.

Ok, for those not familiar with the term, small ball is playing lots of hands and keeping the pot small. You can win a lot of small pots or a few big pots and build the same stack. In our SNG Guides, we advocate tight/conservative play and I still do, but with some slight adjustments.

First, become an expert at position. In HE, the one who exploits position the best has a huge advantage over those who don't get it. I can't stress that enough. If you don't understand it, you must, to be successful.

Arnold Snyder, in The Poker Tournament Formula, suggests playing tournaments with your hole cards covered. Play hands blind? Exactly. The best way to truly understand the power of position is to try playing only position without cards at all. Once you start winning pots from opponents without even looking at your cards, you'll finally understand how having position is THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF HOLD 'EM. Have I gotten through to you, yet?

Once you can play position expertly, then you must read your opponents well. This might be the greatest difference between a good player and a great player. The guys you see on TV are the ones that read the best. One of the benefits of playing the "blind man's bluffing game" above is how much better you'll be at reading opponents.

Until you get both of those skills in your bag of tricks, you can't play small ball. Until you can play small ball, you're not a complete player. Once you get it, I'll guarantee you'll be happy with your future results. Small ball, even in SNGs, will make you a lot of money.

(Plus, the game is a lot more fun.)

CJ

I often play total fish HU who accumulated nearly all chips- I'm happy with 2nd place.

I'm never happy with 2nd if the other guy is 'a total fish'

If I have just 16% of the chips to his 84% I just have to double thru twice for a 2:1 chiplead after all...

i'm going to revive this ancient thread.

i've wondered about playing small ball against specific groups of players. i play what is mostly US morning, and i see a LOT of folders in the early rounds -- that is, it seems like everyone has figured out the "tight is right" early on (at least in some matches). if that's the case, why not steal blinds early with position? you don't have to steal much, but if you've got 1800-2000 in chips (starting with 1500) and a lot of your opponents get blinded down to 1000 or so, i think that puts you in a powerful spot.

i realize that this requires reads (most multi-tablers don't necessarily have good ones), but it's a thought. i also realize that some SnGs will invariably have the maniacs and CSs that EP9 talked about. in that case, you have to pick your spots (i.e., these people are out of the hand) or just play tight until they knock each other out.

thoughts?

I do this occassionally albeit rarely. Problem is you need 2 regular (ie you have a good read on them and played with them a lot), ultratight players on your left.

Even though I play with regulars a lot, chances are they don't sit exactly to my left, so there's gonna be some unknown player and I can't get a read on him in 10 hands or so.

I agree with Kuso that the enviroment has shifted a little (back in my Magic days we used to call this the Metagame). It seemed for a long time that you could have a fantastic ITM (I was over 60% for a while) by playing almost no hands in the first 3-4 blind levels or until it's down to 6 players (whichever happens first). I would fold everything that wasn't AA or KK and I would only play AK or QQ from MP2 or later with no raise in front of me.

Maybe too many people were doing this but whatever the reason, it seems like that doesn't work as well any more. There are less maniacs and in general I see tighter and better play. Since these players call much less often, it becomes profitabler to try to steal the blinds. If you can build your stack slightly in the early stages (i.e. 20% or so) it gives you a huge advantage.

Because I stopped doing so well I quit SnG's for a while and recently I've picked it back up with an altered strategy. I play more pots early on. I try to limp or raise from LP almost every time. I raise with lesser hands in EP (10's, 9's, AQ, AJ) and I've been successful in growing my stack. I've also tried to actually tighten up in the middle stages (7,6,5 people) and only play against the short stacks to try to bust them. I've played 12 of these at the $10 and $20 levels in the past 3 weeks. ITM is 75%.
1st: 4
2nd: 4
3rd:1

Obviously not anywhere near a large enough sample size, but I'll take it . Once I have more data I will post again.

Has anyone else seen a difference based on what site you are playing on?

I am a low limit player ($5 & $10) and I play on UB and FT. I find that small ball works very well on UB where the players are tighter and a CB will get respect. But on FT any bet less than full pot seems to get no respect at all.

Sometimes I like to open a game on UB and another on FT at the same time and I find that I have to play a different game on each site.

Anybody else see this? Or am I just psyching myself out?