What is `small ball poker`

[rodders133]

I have heard this term and read it in various magazines. I understand it is to keep the pot small but how is it applied during a hand. eg does it mean limping in early position with AK, or min raising? Does it just apply pre flop? After the flop does it mean putting in a smaller than usual bet if you hit?. If so, isnt that giving people better odds to draw out on you. Some hand examples of `small ball` would be appreciated

[franknagaijr]

HoH (Harrington on Hold'em) talks about small ball v big ball. IIRC, the idea of small ball was to take down smaller pots earlier, not running dramatic multi-street bluffs, and coming in with solid hand values as the favorite. The contrary idea, large ball poker involves building larger pots with or without a hand, and walking on a tightrope for all your tournament chips, sometimes with a huge hand, other times with nothing but a solid read that your opponent will lay it down to a big river bet.