When the betting comes around to you, and you decide to raise, how much can you raise? Well, this depends on the betting structure used in the game you play. The most common structures are fixed limit, pot limit and no limit.
Fixed limit
In a fixed limit game, the amount you can raise is fixed. If you want to raise, you must raise that particular amount.
Small bet and big bet
The fixed limit often varies between betting rounds. For example, when playing fixed limit Texas Hold'em, all bets and raises in the first t
Capping
wo betting rounds must be in multiples of the big blind. In the last two betting rounds, bets and raises must be in multiples of twice the big blind.
For example, with a big blind of $2, if you want to raise during the first two betting rounds you must raise $2, that is, you must bet $4. If another player wants to re-raise your bet, he too must raise another $2, that is, he must bet $6. However, during the last two betting rounds, if a player has bet the minimum $4 and you want to raise, you must raise $4, that is, you must bet $8. If another player wants to re-raise your bet now, he too must raise $4, which means he must bet $12.
When playing with a fixed limit, the number of raises allowed in a betting round is limited to four. That is, the first bet, a raise, a re-raise and than the final raise – the cap.
For example, in a game with a $2 limit, after the maximum four raises, the total bet for each player is $8.
No limit
In a no-limit game, as soon as it is your turn to bet, you can raise as much as you like. You may even bet all your chips at once if you want. Nevertheless, there are a few restrictions.
Table stakes
Even though you play no limit, you cannot bet more than the amount you have on the table. So players cannot get crazy and bet their farms. And you cannot throw in your car keys.
The minimum bet
In spite of a game being played as no limit, there is always a downward limit for your bets. For example, if you play with blinds, you can never bet or raise less than the big blind.
The minimum re-raise
If, in a betting round, a player has raised before you and you want to re-raise, you must raise at least the amount of the last raise.
Example
Suppose the big blind is $2 and a player to your right bets $10, thereby raising with $8. If you want to re-raise that player, you must raise at least another $8, which means you must bet at least $18. Obviously, since it is no limit, you may also bet more than $18.
Pot limit
Pot limit refers to the maximum bet being the total of held in the pot at any given time. If we use a $1/$2 as an example:
Preflop the blinds are $1/$2, should the first player to act (Under The Gun) want to raise their options are: to at least raise the minimum which would be to make the total $4 (much in the same fashion as FL), or to raise anything up to the maximum of $7 in total. This is calculated by calling the $2 making the pot a total of $5 ($1sb, $2bb, $2call) and then raising that $5 making it $7 as a total bet.
The next player may then either fold, call the $7 or make a raise. Should this player wish to do so the raise will be either a minimum of $5 more (the previous raise) or anything up to the maximum, which is $24 total bet ($1sb, $2,bb $7 previous bet, $7call) so that’s the call of $7 and a raise of $17 creating a total bet of $24.
All other betting rounds apply the same principals; while a player may check on subsequent rounds, when calculating the amount in the pot its is always the same. The total + the call = the maximum raise or bet. There is no limit to the number of raises permitted. No player may be forced out of hand, should they not have enough money to cover the bet they may call with what they have a can only win pro-rata what they have contributed to the pot (in other words how much of the bet they have matched).
Bluffing is more possible in this structure but many players have a relatively cheap option to see the flop and so decisions in the structure maybe more so than any other require thought on all betting rounds and some tactics are required to ensure all aspects of a poker hand strategy are applied.
All In and Side pots
Going All In
Now, you may ask, suppose I hold a really, really strong hand. If someone bets more than I have on the table, and I am not allowed to bet my farm, or throw in my car keys, what can I do? Will I be forced to fold my hand and give up the pot even though I’m probably holding the winning hand? Of course not.
You can always call a bet. Even if an opponent bets more than you have left, you can call that bet by pushing in the remainder of your chips. Thereby you get to show down your monster hand and may win a nice pot. This is called going all in.
However, you cannot win more from your opponent than what corresponds to the chips you bet. If a player bets $100 and you call by betting $40 all in, the other player will get back $60 before the hands are shown down.
Side pots
When more than two players remain in the hand, and a player with fewer chips than the others goes all in, the situation gets a bit complicated. The player with fewer chips is allowed to call, as we saw above, but the other players will continue betting against each other and put more chips into the pot.
The player who is all in cannot win any of the chips that are put into the pot after he went all in. The all-in player is entitled to compete only for the part of the pot corresponding to the amount he put into it. To handle this, the pot is split into a main pot containing the chips that the all-in player will win if he has the best hand, and a side pot made up of the continued betting, that is, the chips that the all-in player cannot win even with the best hand.
If several players with different chip counts go all in during the same hand, there will be several side pots. This gets quite complicated. But don't worry, the poker client takes care of the calculations and sees to it that every player gets the correct share of the pot. You don't need to be the new Einstein to push in all your chips!
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