I have read some of DN's articles and heard him say in interviews, that he rarely reraises preflop early in tournaments. Lately I've been trying to employ this "small ball" approach where I will just call a raise. I have found that I am often times being squeezed out of pots. Typical hands I like doing this with or AK, AQ, AJ, 10s, and 9s.

Is there any defense against the squeeze? Am I doing this with the wrong hands? And should I be willing to all-in with these hands if I think someone is trying to squeeze me out?

Thoughts?

I think this is heavily dependent on stack sizes, and your observations of your opponents who act behind you. The more likely that there is a reraise coming behind your smooth-call, the more likely you have to be to reraise at least AK and TT, and probably AQs as well (to isolate).

That said, I think the small ball approach of calling raises and playing smaller pots refers more toward playing small/medium pocket pairs and suited connectors.

Plus you don't have DNs rep either, not a knock on you, just saying that DN will get more respect when he's in a hand.

What kind of tourneys (structure/buy in wise) are you playing? My guess is that you are playing smaller/poorly structured events. If so, you are making a pretty big mistake playing small ball in my opinion. First reason is (not trying to be a jerk) is that you probably don't play flops well enough to justify passing on so many preflop edges. Secondly, there are very few online tournament structures that would allow smallball to be profitable, and almost never at the lower levels. I would suggest that you read Harrington on Holdem 2 and go from there. You don't have to consider it gospel, but there is a ton of stuff in the book that is flat out necesary for any tournament player. I think once you get the basics down, and play more tourneys especially, you will become much more comfortable with situations like you are describing and will be able to more easily put your opponents on accurate hand ranges. I know this doesn't really answer your question but, I hope it's helpful.

One exception, if you are rolled for it and want to get some smallball practice, is the $11 deepstack on stars. It's around noon on saturday or sun, you can look it up. It's not the WPT, but it is t$5000 starting stack and I believe 30 min levels.

But like GrinderMJ said, the people who succeed at this style of play do well because they are excellent at playing postflop, so give yourself plenty of time to develop the comfort it takes to avoid traps that can come easily when you are seeing a lot of flops with marginal hands.