Check raising less, taking pot control lines of checking or calling rather than betting and raising, but as a general rule keep the pot smaller preflop (by minraising and limping) in order to paly "small ball."
It's not necessarily better and there's no one answer fits all. Most good players don't really play one or the other in a husng. If you're playing a calling station it's probably going to be silly to play small ball. Sure you keep the pots small when you don't have a hand but you want to bet big and often for value against a player that won't raise and will call you wide. That's not exactly small ball poker.
I think a lot of people just get too caught up in terminology and try to create "moves" and stuff. The phrase "small ball" is used quite frequently and almost always accompanies the words "i" and "me."
Playing lots of smaller pots rather than fewer bigger ones.
how do we go about keeping pots small?
Check raising less, taking pot control lines of checking or calling rather than betting and raising, but as a general rule keep the pot smaller preflop (by minraising and limping) in order to paly "small ball."
It's not necessarily better and there's no one answer fits all. Most good players don't really play one or the other in a husng. If you're playing a calling station it's probably going to be silly to play small ball. Sure you keep the pots small when you don't have a hand but you want to bet big and often for value against a player that won't raise and will call you wide. That's not exactly small ball poker.
I think a lot of people just get too caught up in terminology and try to create "moves" and stuff. The phrase "small ball" is used quite frequently and almost always accompanies the words "i" and "me."