"Pot Limit Poker: Gain A Winners Confidence"Pot limit poker is a poker format where the maximum bet is the amount of chips in the pot. Bets can be made anywhere from the minimum bet (amount of big blind) to the amount of the pot. In a $2-$4 pot limit texas hold-em game with a $20 pot you can bet anywhere from $4 to $20. The somewhat tricky part of pot limit is when you want to RAISE. An easy way to figure out what amount you can raise is a 1-2-3 step. 1 add the amount it costs you to call to the pot 2 add all the chips in the pot together 3 your raise is the sum of step 2 on top of your call Example: In a $2-$4 game two players in front of you call the big blind, you want to raise. Add the small blinds $2, the big blinds $4, the two players that called $4 and the $4 it costs you to call all together. This amount is $18. Adding the amount of the pot to your call gives you $22 which is the most you can raise. Now lets say action gets to the small blind in our example and they want to raise. They would take the amount it costs to call ($22) add it to the pot, then add the $22 raise, the big blinds $4 and the two callers $4. This equals $56. The small blind can make it $56 ON TOP OF the $22 it costs to call for a total of $78. A minimum raise in pot limit is double the previous bet or raise. In the above example of the small blind re-raising they could simply raise to $40, $18 (amount of previous raise) on top of $22. Pots can get large enough during a hand that players can simply move ALL-IN. Any poker game can be played in the pot limit format. Community card and draw poker games are commonly found in pot limit. Pot limit is mostly played at online poker sites as calculators instantly figure the amount of the pot. Some live poker rooms do play pot limit but they are very few. Poker dealers have a lot to pay attention to when dealing poker. Keeping track of the pot and figuring how much players can raise is an added task that some have yet to master. So most rooms don’t offer it. Jump at any chance you get to play pot limit poker, its great fun. Good luck! |
