Poker Betting Structures

[PokerGoddess]

Limit Poker is the kind played most often in the United States, and less so in other parts of the world. In limit poker, the betting is rigidly structured: in "5-10 Texas Hold'em," for example, all bets or raises during the first two betting rounds must be in $5 increments.

No bets in amounts such as $1, $7, $10, or $30 would be allowed. During the second two betting rounds (on the Turn and River), all bets and raises must be in $10 increments. A player can no longer bet only $5, and still cannot bet more than $10. The lone exception to this occurs when a player is down to his last few chips. If in this hypothetical 5-10 game, a player had only $3 left, he would be allowed to bet it, or to call with it.
As a result of the rigidly defined betting structure, it is difficult, though not quite impossible, for one pot to define an entire day's play. Pots tend to stay within a certain range in size, unless multiple players engage in a hand with multiple raises for several rounds, a situation that occurs only rarely.

Pot-Limit Poker is the kind played more in Europe, and as a tournament game in America. In a pot-limit game, the blinds or antes determine the size of the betting, and at any point, the next player to act can bet any amount up to the size of the pot. For example, in a pot-limit hold'em game with blinds of $5 and $10, the next player to act can either call for $10 or raise by placing any amount from $20 up to $35 in the pot.
The $20 minimum for a raise stems from the fact that a raise must be at least the size of the prior bet. So the minimum raise in this situation is the $10 blind plus another $10. The $35 figure comes from the player calling the big blind's $10 bet, which puts a total of $25 in the pot, and then raising the size of the pot (10 + 25 = 35).

Assuming this player did indeed make a pot-sized raise, the next player to act could either call the $35, or raise by betting any amount from $70 up through $105. The $105 figure comes from calling the $35 bet, which puts a total of $70 in the pot, and then raising the full size of the pot (35 + 70 = 105).

As you can see, a re-raise by yet another player, or by one of the earlier players, could make a pot that started with two relatively small blinds quite huge indeed. The next maximum wager would be $420 (calling the $140 in the pot, and raising the full $280 pot size), creating a pot of $560. The opportunity for continued growth on later rounds means this pot could easily wind up with several thousand dollars in it, something that could never happen in a limit game with $5 and $10 blinds.

No-Limit Poker is more closely related to pot-limit than it is to limit, and so it too is a popular game in Europe that is played primarily in tournaments in America. The betting structure is simple, because there is almost no structure: the blinds or antes start off the hand, and at any point, any player may raise any amount, up to and including the full stack of chips in front of him (which is called "moving all-in").

As with both limit and pot-limit, if a player bets more than another player has in front of him, he cannot force the other player out of the hand; the player with fewer chips is allowed to call whatever portion of the bet he can.