POT LIMIT POKER OVERVIEW

Pot Limit bets are limited to the total number of chips that have been placed in the pot. This means that at the start of the hand the bets are fairly small and restricted, similar to Fixed Limit, but in later rounds towards the end of the hand, as the pot grows the bets grow and as the bets grow the pot grows, and you can end up seeing some very large pots.

Pot Limit refers to the biggest possible bet being the same size as the total of money in the pot at any time. I'll again use a $1/$2 Texas Hold'em cash game as an example:

The blinds will be $1/$2.

If you are the first player to act and you want to raise, your options are to bet the minimum which would be $4, or to bet anything up to $7. Why $7 you ask, well this is worked out by calling the $2 big blind, making the pot a total of $5, $1 small blind, $2 big blind, $2 call, and then raising that $5 making it a $7 raise.

The next player may then either fold, call the $7 or make a raise. Should this player wish to raise then it will either be a minimum of $5 more, which is your previous raise, or anything up to a bet of $24. That $24 bet is made up of $1 small blind, $2 big blind, $7 your bet, $7 players call and a raise of $17.

The important thing to learn in Pot Limit Poker is that when calculating the size of the pot its:

Total in the pot + Amount of the call = Maximum raise or bet.

There are no caps on the number of bets or raises per betting round in Pot limit Poker, which can be good if you want to bet, but it's important that you focus on the hand in front of you instead of just the pot. You don't want to go all in before you see all of your cards. Bluffing is quite difficult to do at the start, but big bets can have the potential to scare off some players at the end.

You can't be forced out of a hand if you don't have enough money to cover all the the bet then there is a split pot and you call with what you have, you can only then win what you have contributed to the pot and what's been matched.

While bluffing is more possible in Pot Limit Poker, due to the early betting restrictions you always have a relatively cheap opportunity to see the flop. Therefore you have to think about all betting rounds and all aspects of poker hand strategy in Pot Limit Poker.

Want to learn about Fixed Limit Poker? Click here to look at the Fixed Limit Poker section.

Want to learn about No Limit Poker? Click here to look at the No Limit Poker section.