No Limit Poker Rules

If you are familiar with the rules for Limit Texas Hold'em, you will not need to learn too much more to understand our rules for No-Limit Texas Hold'em. If you are not familiar with our Limit Texas Hold'em rules, we suggest you go here to read them and then return to this section.

No-Limit involves blinds, just as Limit does, and in our No-Limit games you have a choice of $.10/$.25 and $.25/$.50 blinds. However, from here, limit and no-limit change dramatically.

In No-Limit, any player is allowed to raise any amount he or she has in front of him at any time. If the blinds are $5-$10, and the first player to act has $500 in front of him, and wants to put all $500 in (a raise of $490), he may (even though a raise of this size would probably be unusual).

The only confusing concept for players in No-Limit may involve the MINIMUM size of raises that are allowed. The raise must always be at least the size of the previous bet or raise. So, for example, in a game with $5-$10 blinds, the first player into the pot could not bet a total of $15, because that would only be a raise of $5. The minimum bet in this situation would be a bet of $20, which is a raise of $10.

In the more likely case that the first raiser makes a somewhat larger bet, for example, a bet of $40 (which would be a raise of $30), the next player could fold, call the $40, or raise. If he raises, he would have to place at least $70 in the pot, because his raise would have to be at least as much as the previous raise. The only upper limit on the size of his raise is the number of chips he has in front of him when the hand begins.

Players may not bring additional chips to the table in the middle of a hand, but can always (unless they have run into their daily, weekly, or monthly limit) decide to bring more chips to the table in between hands.

If a player bets more chips than you have in front of you, you are not forced out of the hand. You are allowed to call for whatever number of chips you have (this will place you "all-in"). If no one else is in the pot, the bettor simply takes back his excess chips, and the hand is played to conclusion without any additional betting. If there are other players remaining in the pot, it is possible that a side pot may be created.