The type of hold em you’re playing depends on the betting structure. For our purposes, there are three major types of hold em: limit, pot-limit, and no-limit. In the following section, we’ll investigate each of these forms in turn.
Limit
In limit hold em only a specific amount may be bet each round. Limit hold em games are often named by their limits: a $2.50/$5 game, for instance, would have a betting limit of $2.50 for each bet in the first two rounds (pre- and post-flop), and $5 for each bet in the last two rounds (turn and river). In these games, the big blind is commonly the lower limit ($2.50 in this case), while the small blind is half of that ($1.25).
In casinos and online, limit games use fixed limits, which means that players may only bet in the increments of the limits. Their only decision is whether to bet or not–how much is already taken care of. In the first two rounds of the game above, for instance, the players may only bet $2.50 a pop. In the last two rounds, they may only bet $5. Nothing else. A variation on this is a spread limit game, where players can bet any amount (up to the limits). Home games often use spread limits, which give players greater flexibility. In the game above, spread limits would mean Mike, Eddie, and Stu can bet 50 cents, or $1.50, or $2.25–anything between the lowest denomination of chip and the limit. (Spread limits are sometimes given a range like $1-$5, and may have a different limit To be sure we have a handle on this, consider a fixed limit $10/$20 game. Test yourself with the following questions: what are the blinds? What¼s the betting limit in the pre-flop? The river? Can someone bet $7.50 on the flop?
Did you get it? Here are the answers: small blind $5, big blind $10; preflop (and post-flop) limit $10; river (and turn) limit $20; no one can bet $7.50 at any time, the only bets allowed are $10 or $20.
Limit games are usually classified as low-, medium-, or high-limit. The boundaries usually go like this:
* Low ($2/$4, $3/$6, $5/10)
* Medium ($10/$20, $20/$40, $30/$60)
* High ($50/$100 and higher)
Pot Limit
Pot-limit holdem refers to a game in which the players may bet any amount at any time, up to the amount in the pot (if they don¼t want to raise the max, they must raise at least the amount of the previous bet or blind). The way pot limit works can be a bit confusing at first, as the “amount in the pot” also includes your call, in the case of a raise. Let¼s take a look… Let¼s say Eddie, Mike, and Stu have decided to play pot limit hold em with a $10 big blind.
In one of their games, the turn comes up with $30 in the pot. Mike opens with a $30 bet (the maximum allowable). Now it’s Eddie’s turn. Eddie is sitting on a king-high flush and wants to raise the max. What is it? Logic say he raises $30 to $60, right? Wrong. In pot-limit holdem, the amount of an allowable raise includes the money that’s been bet already in the round, plus the pot. So Eddie adds Mike’s raise to the pot ($30 + $30) and then adds the amount of his own call ($30). Total? $90. This is the amount Eddie can raise. So he does, first throwing in his call of Mike¼s bet ($30), then the $90 raise, for a total of $120 dollars.
So now the action comes around to Stu, who, miracle of miracles, drew a full house on the turn. Now he wants to make the max raise. I¼ll give you a second to figure it out yourself….
Okay. Here’s how it’s computed. We still have $30 in the pot, $30 sitting in front of Mike, and $120 sitting in front of Eddie. Add to this $120, the amount it will cost Stu just to call. Now total it. That’s right, $300. This is Stu¼s maximum allowable raise, and he will be wise to make it. And he does, first throwing in his call ($120), then his raise ($300).
Now we get back to Mike, who only has two pair, but who is drunk. He wants to make the last raise, and try to bluff out the other two. This will surely be unsuccessful, but it gives us a chance to figure one last pot-limit max raise–so go ahead….
That’s right. Mike lays down $1440 dollars that he can kiss goodbye. Though there are no caps in pot-limit poker (no four-bet limit), Eddie and Stu both merely call, wondering what the heck Mike has. It’s easy to see from this example how quickly the betting can escalate in pot-limit poker– just think, the round began with a $30 bet and ends with enough money on the table to purchase a reliable (though not flashy) used car.
A word on the blinds in pot limit: in many games the blinds are both counted as having the value of the big blind, for max-raise purposes. Thus where the blinds are $5 and $10, the maximum first bet will be $40 (four times the big blind is a common formula given). See why?
The small blind is counted as $10, the big blind as $10–making a $20 pot. The first player must call only $10, however. All together, this makes for a possible first raise of $30. So the players throws in his $10 call and his $30 raise. (It’s important to note that the small blind is only counted as $10 for max-bet purposes. The small blind must still call $5 if everyone calls around to him.)
There are exceptions to this. Some games use the face-value of the small blind for determining max bets during the pre-flop–meaning they don¼t adjust it to match the big blind. Each online or brink-and-mortar card room/casino will have its own rules on this. In fact, this type of minor variation is what differentiates differing gambling venues–the major rules are constant everywhere you go (or log into).
Make sure you know all the rules well before you play with real money.
No Limit
No-limit holdem is the most famous and glamorous of the three forms– this is the style celebrated in the poker film Rounders and in the “celebrity poker” TV shows. It’s also the name of the game at the most prestigious contest in all of poker: the main even of the WSOP.
As such, no-limit is the game of choice for legions of devotees who love nothing more than shoving their stacks of chips into the center of the table and declaring themselves “all-in.”
The way no limit works is simple: players may raise any amount at any time (with the raise being, at minimum, the amount of the last raise or bet). How does this work in practice? Let’s turn again to our three-man poker match. It’s nearing the end of the night, and the players have grown tired of the calculations involved in pot limit poker. They’ve decided to finish up with a few rounds of no limit, with blinds of $10 and $20.
A few hands in, Mike looks in his pocket to find a pair of aces. His stack (money) has dwindled down to $285, and he’s desperate to make more. After the other two players call his big blind, he decides to go all-in, raising $285–in the pre-flop round! Stu and Eddie look at each other. They both know Mike’s been betting emotionally and wildly since his ill-advised pot-limit bet. Yet Stu has only a 7s-2c, and doesn’t want to throw away his money. He folds. Eddie, on the other hand, has a KQs, and doesn’t want to throw those cards away. He matches Mike’s all-in bet, pushing $285 of his respectable stack into the middle.
A couple of things are important to note here. First, betting is now concluded. With only two players left, and one of them all-in, no more bets can possibly be placed. Second, at this point, both players must flip their pocket cards face-up; after they do, the flop, turn, and river will be dealt. There are no more betting rounds. Whenever there is only one player remaining who’s not all-in (there can be any number of players all-in on a hand, though usually not more than two or three will be in a given hand), betting ends, the pocket cards are turned up, and the remaining cards are dealt–no matter whether this occurs on the flop, river, or turn, or in the middle of a betting round.
(In this case, the cards come up 4h-7c-2d-10s-Ac, nearly giving Mike a heart attack, but preserving his win. He shakes his head as he rakes in the $630 pot. Eddie can’t do anything but smile.)
KENNY IRONS (Auburn) Last Week: 7. Auburn shutout Mississippi State this past Saturday 34-0 for the team’s 18th win in its last 19 SEC games. However, RB Kenny Irons saw his seven-game regular season streak of 100-yard rushing performances come to an end when he was held to just 69 yards on 21 carries (no TDs). MSU’s concentration on Irons allowed FB Brad Lester to get into the end zone twice, gaining 40 yards on five attempts. Anyway, Irons will get his chance this coming Saturday when Auburn hosts No. 6 LSU. You may remember (LSU does) that Irons had a career-high 218 yards rushing in last year’s 20-17 OT loss to LSU in Baton Rogue. His season stats are: 41 attempts 252 yards 6.1 YPC 1 TD / 4 catches 36 yards 9.0 YPC 0 TDs.