No Limit Poker

Just as the name suggests, no limit poker – has no limits. There are no caps on the betting. Almost any amount can be put into the pot at any time. The upper limit of any bet, raise or reraise is only limited to the table stakes (the amount of chips/money a player has at the table). As for the lower limit, too small bets or under betting is not allowed unless a player is all in. That Texas Hold'em is the Cadillac of poker usually implies no limit Texas Hold'em.

Televised poker tournaments gives a glimpse of the nature of high-stakes no limit poker. No limit is the customary betting structure in larger poker tournaments. It used to be reserved for tournaments and veteran high-stakes players. With the advent of online poker this is no longer the case. No limit games that still allows you to stay within your comfort zone are now readily available. That does not change the fact that the no limit betting structure quickly punishes bad play.

In short the betting rules for no limit poker can be summarized as:

• Minimum bet: All bets must at least match the minimum bring-in, big blind.
• Minimum raise: A raise must be at least as big as the previous bet or raise in the same round.
• Maximum raise: The size of the stack, the amount of money the player has at the table.

For a more detailed discussion on the more intricate rules of no limit and pot limit, please visit the rules section 14 - No-Limit and Pot-Limit.

No Limit Example

In a $1-$2 NL game, the small blind is $1 and the big blind is $2. The same game in an online poker room can also be labeled as $100 NL, then it is implied that the table stakes are $100. No one can sit down with more than $100 and the betting begins with two forced bets of $1 and $2.

In such a game, the player "under the gun", who is first to act, may decide to go all in at once. This would be an highly unorthodox play so lets instead say that the bet is $6. If only the player in the big blind calls then there is $13 in the pot after the first betting round.

Lets say that the player in the big blind checks on the next betting round. The minimum bet that the other player can make is now $2 (the size of the big blind), because there has not yet been a bet or raise on this betting round. If that player bets about the size of the pot, $10, then the player in the big blind must push a minimum of $20 forward to make a raise. To quickly end this example lets say that the big blind made this minimum raise whereafter the other player went all-in and the big blind folded.