The issue is that, over time, all of those small pots that we lose add up and eat into our winrate. Our brains tend to remember big losses, since they create bigger pain, and deprioritize small losses.
The style may decrease exposure (how much total money you put at risk in pots during a session), but it does NOT automatically lower your overall variance.Īnd the biggest reason why players like this style, although most won’t verbalize it, is those small losses from tight folds and missed bets don’t register as strongly in our poker mindset.
When I ask students why they play small ball, most of them say that they enjoy the decreased variance that the style creates. This ultimately creates a sense of simplicity and control in an otherwise complex and chaotic game.
Risk-averse players love this strategy since they really only get involved in big pots with huge hands. The overall concept of small ball is a mixture of three things: getting involved in lots of cheap pots preflop, avoiding getting involved in big pots postflop without monster hands, and trying to get monster hands paid off for maximum value.
