Betting
Where the money actually moves. These are the rules behind every greyed-out button and every pot that did not go where you expected.
One question decides your options
Is there a bet in front of you that you have not matched?
You may check and pass the decision on, or bet and open the round. Folding is possible but pointless — staying in costs nothing.
You may fold, call to match it, or raise to more. Checking is not offered, because there is money in front of you.
The one case that catches people out: preflop, the big blind has already put in a full bet, so if nobody raises they may check. Posting a blind is money, not a turn — the blind still gets to act.
Minimums
No limit caps the bottom of a bet, never the top.
- The smallest opening bet on any round is one big blind — 50 at the start of a table here.
- The smallest raise is by as much as the last raise was. Not double the bet — by the size of the last increase.
- That minimum resets every round. A huge raise preflop does not make the flop expensive; the flop starts again at one big blind.
- There is no maximum. Any bet or raise can be for your entire stack, at any point.
The blinds are 50/100. Someone raises to 300 — an increase of 200 over the 100 that was already there.
The next raise must therefore be to at least 500: the 300 in front of you, plus another 200. Raising to 400 is not allowed, because that is only an increase of 100.
The slider at the table already knows this. Its lowest position is the minimum, so you cannot make an illegal raise by accident.
Going all-in
Always allowed, even when your stack is under the minimum.
If you cannot cover the minimum bet or the minimum raise, you can still put in everything you have. Nobody is ever forced out of a hand for being short.
But a short all-in has a consequence that is easy to miss, and it is the rule most home games get wrong: an all-in that is too small to count as a full raise does not reopen the betting. Players who have already acted may call it or fold, but they may not raise again.
Blinds 50/100.
A raises to 300. That is an increase of 200, so the next full raise would have to be to 500.
B is all-in for 380. That is an increase of only 80 — short of the 200 needed. B is not doing anything wrong; it is simply everything they had.
A now owes 80 to call. A may call it or fold, but A may not re-raise, because no full raise has happened since A acted. Had B been all-in for 500 or more, the betting would have reopened and A could have raised again.
The reason for the rule is fairness to A: a player should not be able to use a tiny all-in to buy another shot at raising for someone else.
When a round ends
Two conditions, and both are needed.
A betting round is over when everybody still able to act has acted at least once and has matched the current bet.
The first condition is why an unraised preflop does not end early. Everyone has limped in for one big blind, so the big blind has matched the bet without ever acting — and is still owed the chance to check or raise. That chance is called the option.
If everyone but one player is all-in, betting is finished: the rest of the board is dealt out and the hand goes straight to showdown, because there is nobody left who can be bet at.
Money nobody could match comes back
Before any pot is built, an uncalled bet is returned.
You are all-in for 500. The one opponent still in the hand has only 380 and calls for all of it.
Your last 120 was never matched by anyone, so it goes straight back to your stack. It was never really in play, and it is returned before the pot is worked out at all — win or lose.
Side pots
When someone is all-in for less, the pot splits into layers.
A player can only win as much as they put in, from each opponent. So when one player is all-in for less than the others are betting, the chips are separated into a main pot everybody is playing for and a side pot only the deeper players are playing for.
A is all-in for 100. B and C both put in 500 and carry on betting each other.
Main pot — 300. A hundred from each of the three. All three can win this one.
Side pot — 800. The remaining 400 each from B and C. Only B and C can win it, because A never had chips in it.
So A can win 300 at most, however good their hand is. If A has the best hand, A takes the main pot and the better of B and C takes the side pot — two different players collecting from one showdown.
Chips put in by a player who later folded stay in the pot and are won by somebody else. Folding forfeits the money; it does not retrieve it.
Split pots
Equal hands share, down to the last chip.
If two hands are exactly equal across all five cards, the pot is divided between them. Each layer of a side-potted hand is settled on its own, so a split in one pot does not affect who wins another.
When a pot will not divide evenly, the leftover chip goes to the first winner clockwise from the dealer button. It is a small rule with one important property: every chip that goes into a pot comes out of it, so the total at the table never changes.