In the mid-2000s, poker pro Daniel Negreanu created and coined a system for playing poker tournaments known as “Small Ball.”
This strategy involved playing a wide range of hands preflop, seeing many flops in position, making a slew of small continuation bets (c-bets), and generally avoiding large pots unless he had a very strong holding. This strategy had a lot of success in those games and that era. A question I’ve heard recently is how would this Small Ball strategy hold up today in 2025? Is that a viable strategy in today’s era of poker tournaments?
Similar to the answer I give to almost any poker question, it depends. In this particular thought experiment, regarding playing a Small Ball strategy in No Limit Hold’em tournaments in 2025, it depends on what stakes we are playing. I believe this strategy to still be viable and perhaps even the best strategy in small stakes tournaments — let’s say $500 buy-in and below live. However, at higher stakes, this sort of strategy would not have much of a chance in today’s era of solver poker. The opposition is just too strong.
Why the Small Ball Strategy Still Works In Low-Stakes Poker Games
The Small Ball strategy operates on the path of least resistance. For this to be successful over a large sample, you are going to need your opponents to be overfolding preflop, not 3-betting enough preflop, and overfolding to c-bets.
In short, you need your opponents not to be fighting hard enough for small pots. Luckily, this fairly accurately describes the population tendencies of players in low-stakes No Limit tournaments. I would even go as far as to say that Small Ball is still used by a lot of the best professionals at those stakes. These players are opening and c-betting super wide to win a lot of easy pots, and avoiding big pots without big holdings when they face resistance.
Why This Doesn’t Work vs. Stronger Competition in 2025
Now while Small Ball can win versus weaker players at small stakes, the same is not true in high stakes No Limit tournaments. Most players in these games know their preflop poker ranges and will not be overfolding or missing too many 3-bets. In short, they simply play too well to be beaten by a rote strategy like this. Players opening too wide will be punished by facing 3-bets or being forced to play weak holdings versus strong ranges held by strong players postflop. Neither of these situations are what the Small Ball player is looking for.
The other common tactic of the Small Ball strategy is a near-automatic continuation bet as the preflop opener. And while this may be effective at small stakes as players are overfolding and not realizing their equity, at high stakes, the same is not true.
Opponents are finding not only marginal calls as continues but also raises on the flop which immediately thwarts the whole idea of Small Ball. If you’re playing garbage cards and looking to take down a lot of pots with continuation bets, the last thing you want to face is steadfast opponents finding creative floats and check-raises.
Is Small Ball Still a Viable Strategy?
So while Daniel Negreanu’s Small Ball System may not still be effective across the board, we can learn a lot from it. The system took out a lot of the risk in playing against weaker opponents, and exploited these opponents’ weaknesses via a slow bleed of opens and continuation bets.
In 2025, there is still a time and place for this system to be effective, but it depends completely on the stakes you’re playing and players you are facing. Special tournaments like the WSOP Main Event, with weak players and no re-entry option, also offer an opportunity to bring back Small Ball.
