Daniel Negreanu’s Poker Style

June 1, 2009 | by Carolina Gambler | posted in Poker Strategy

Every poker player in the world knows the name “Daniel Negreanu”, mostly due to the rising popularity of televised poker and of Daniel’s many appearances and impressive track record. Daniel Negreanu is a master of poker strategy and he developed his own play style over the years. Thanks technology. anyone you can learn directly from the master with Daniel Negreanu Poker training videos.

Small Ball Poker

The name of the play style used by Daniel Negreanu is “Small Ball Poker”, a play style he his credited for having created. That’s probably not accurate as many poker players before him have used similar poker strategy, but Daniel certainly deserves some credit for having defined and “formalized” it.

The concept behind Small Ball Poker is relatively simple. It’s about playing a wide range of starting hands, but without investing too much money in the pot. The idea involves playing not just premium hands, but pretty much any hand that is suited or connected, as long as the price to do so is relatively cheap. The Small ball poker style works best in cash games but can work in phases of poker tournaments.

How Daniel Negreanu Plays Small Ball Poker

Daniel’s strategy usually involves playing hands when he has position. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t play in early positions. If he has a good starting hand, he’ll play it obviously, but you’ll notice he plays a lot more hands when he’s in late positions.

Typically, the small ball poker players enters the pot with a small raise that is no more than 2.5 the big blinds, or simply calls the minimum bet. Beyond position, an important factor that Daniel Negreanu will take into considerations is the number of players in the hand. Pre flop, the goal is to see a flop without investing much. But the odds of making a hand, or the probability that no one else makes a hand, is greater when there’s fewer players involved in the hand. The style does invoke small raises on occasions, where the purpose is to discourage limpers from sticking around, but you should save your raises for when you are in position.

Table Image Matters

By frequently playing from good positions and by seeing many “cheap flops”, the small ball poker style creates an aggressive player image and this is critical to the strategy. The idea of playing suited or connected hands is that you will on occasions make some really big hands and when they happen, you want get as much money out of your opponents as possible. That’s why the aggressive image is important: opponents have to doubt your hand strength when you bet. If they are prone to see you as a bluffer, they will be prone to calling, and this is exactly how Daniel Negreanu manages to be successful. By playing many hands, his chip stack gradually decreases, but when he does make a big hand, he also reaps big benefits, making his chip stack increase in the long run.

Editors Note: This article is written by an online associate .

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One Response to “Daniel Negreanu’s Poker Style”

  1. Dizzypoker says:

    Daniel and Ivey are the best two poker players in the world imo.

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