In yet another variety of the game of poker, Texas Hold’em Pot Limit, involves 'blinds', or blind bets, as does the other variety, Limit. In Pot-Limit games there is a choice of $0.50 to $1 blinds and $1 to $2 blinds, but the rules to Half Pot-Limit become quite different in this area.

In a Pot-Limit game any player with a sufficient number of chips at the start of a hand can raise the bet by any amount within a certain range. The range is determined by the actual size of the pot at the time of that particular player’s turn to act.

The range can start at the minimum raise which is either the size of the immediately preceding bet or the size of the immediately preceding raise, depending upon whether the preceding action was a bet or a raise. The maximum end of the range is equal to the highest raise, which is equal to the size of the pot.

In land-based casinos, it is sometimes difficult for players to calculate the minimum and maximum raise because the rule allows a player to first call the previous bet and then to bet half the size of the bet including that call.

In online games, however, players do not need to do the calculation themselves because the software does it for the player and won’t allow him to make a raise that is too high or too low. Nevertheless, players should still understand how the betting system works.

An examination of how to calculate the raise limit might be useful. Assuming you are playing in a game where the blinds are $1 to $2, in order to raise, the next player will place $4 on the table. We know this because the previous bet was $2 and he must double that (of course, the next player could also have decided to fold or call the $2). The maximum bet will be $7 because he must first call the $2 blind bet, which creates a total pot of $5 and he must raise the size of the new pot. The $5 rise plus the $2 call brings the total bet to $7.

Proceeding with this same example, assume that the first player bets the maximum of $7. This means that there is now a total of $12 in the pot. The next player can now fold, call the $7 bet or raise the bet by adding an amount between $14 and $26. This range is determined by the minimum raise of $7, which is the size of the previous bet, and a maximum raise of $19, which come from calling the $7 bet and raising that bet to the size of the pot, which now stands at $19.

It now becomes clear that the size of the pot will grow dramatically if several players in a row decide on making pot-sized raises. For this reason it is typically recommended that beginning players start off by playing limit poker before moving to the more sophisticated pot-limit types of the game.

Players cannot buy more chips once a hand has already begun but they can buy more chips in between hands.

A player will be forced out of the hand if he bets more chips than he has in front of him. He is allowed to call for the total number of chips he has. If no one else is in the pot, the bettor will take back his excess chips, and the hand will be played to the end without further betting. Other players that remain in the pot may opt to continue and create a side pot.

Side Pots

A regular feature of limit poker, side pots are most common in Pot-Limit because the bets are larger. Take, for example, a game involving three players, Greg, Beth and Alex. At the beginning of the game, Greg has $100 worth of chips, Beth has $40, and Alex has $250. The blinds are $0.50 to $1.

In the betting that takes place before the flop, Greg opens the hand with a maximum bet of $3.5 while everyone else folds except for Beth and Alex who both call. This puts $12 in the main pot.

After the flop, Greg decides to bet $12, the size of the pot. Beth wants to make the maximum raise possible, which would mean a bet of $36 (calling the $12 creates a pot of $24, which would then be the maximum raise), but she has only $35 left, so she bets that much, making a pot of $59.

Alex is left with two options if she likes Greg’s hand. The first option is to simply call Beth’s bet of $35. If she does this, then Greg can choose one of the following three options:

    1.      He can fold, which would leave Beth and Alex to contest the pot without any additional betting (since Beth is out of chips).

    2.      He can call which would create a total pot of $117 ($59 + $35 + George's $23 call). If he does call, Beth is then 'live' or eligible for the entire $117 main pot, but any betting on the turn or river will create a "side pot" for which only Greg or Alex are eligible to win. If either Greg or Alex places a bet on the turn or river that the other will not call, the player folding loses all his rights to contest both the side pot and the main pot.

    3.      He can rise. Theoretically, Greg could wager an amount as large as $129, which is the $59 pot plus Alex’s $35 call creating a pot of $94. Also, if Greg had enough chips, he could call the $35 and then raise the $94, but he doesn't have that much left in front of him, and he can’t buy chips in the middle of the hand. If Greg wants to rise, he is limited to the amount that is in front of him, which is $84.50 (the remainder of his starting $100 stack, minus the $3.50 bet before the flop and then $12 on the flop).

If Greg does place the $84.50 bet, it isn’t required that Beth make a decision. All of her chips are already in the pot so Greg can’t be forced out by another bet. On the other hand, Alex must choose whether or not to call. She cannot rise because Greg has no chips left with which to rise too.

If Alex calls Greg’s bet of $84.50, which she can only do by putting $49.50 in the pot, (since that is all that Greg raised), a side pot of $99 gets created because $35 of this wager is allocated to the main pot that all three players are contesting. Even if Beth gets a royal flush she cannot win this $99. Since only Greg and Alex put money into the $99 side pot, only they can contest it.

For smaller pot games, the same principles apply even though the amount of money bet is less. While experienced Pot-Limit players in real casinos and card rooms do learn how to calculate maximum and minimum bets, including side pots, online players don’t need to learn how because the software does the calculating and doesn’t let players place bets that are higher than the maximum and minimum wagers that are decided by the state of the game.

Warning: It is Not Recommended that Beginners Play Pot-Limit

The examples and explanations provided above demonstrate the size of the possible raises and the fact that all of your chips can be at risk on any given hand.

This creates a dangerous situation, because not only is there an opportunity to achieve huge wins, but there is also a possibility of taking huge losses.

For new players, it is typically recommended that new players begin by playing limit poker and then gradually and carefully move to Pot-Limit only after they have mastered the game really well and gained lots of experience.