Poker Lesson 15: Betting Rules

Sometimes entering a game at a new place is sort of like going to a foreign country. The people are strange, the rules are different, and the food can cause the type of gastro-intestinal problems that only a bottle of Pepto Bismol and time can fix. When playing somewhere unfamiliar, be sure you know rules of the table, especially the specifics of betting. This may save some embarrassment and a savage beating when the time comes to pay up.

Not all betting rules are self-evident, so there are some simple questions you should ask before sitting down to play. Is checking allowed? Does the table required a flat bet or is variable betting preferred? These questions are much more important than deciding whether pineapple is a welcome addition to the mid-game pizza. Once you have gotten your head around the betting rules at the table, be sure to adjust your play to them.

The betting rules and structure will often affect how much it costs to come in, and raise in a game. This, in turn will affect how you play. The Sklansky book, “The Theory of Poker” outlines this beautifully when he describes a $15-$30 at the Golden Nugget.

Many players had moved from a $10-$20 game to this $15-$30 game. In the $10-$20 game there was usually a 50-cent ante and a $5 blind. It cost $5 to come in and another $5 to raise. Conversely the $15-$30 had no ante, but there were two blinds, $5 and $10. It cost $10 to come in, and to raise it cost another $15, for a grand total of $25. In short it was much more expensive to come in on the $15-$30 game.

When you call the $5 blind in the $10-$20 dollar game, you are investing half of the $10 bet on the flop; but when you called the $10 blind in the $15-$30 game, you were investing a full two-thirds of the $15 flop bet. When you raise (or call a raise) in the $10-$20 game, you are investing as much as the bet on the flop – namely, $10; but when you raised or called a raise in the $15-$30 game, you were investing almost twice as much as the bet on the flop, $25. Additionally, when you call the $5 blind in the early position in the $10-$20, you risk being raised only the amount of the initial bet; but when you call the $10 blind in the $15-$30 from the early position, you risk being raised another $15. This is one-and-a-half times the initial bet.

In other words, the $15-$30 game is more expensive. This will affect how you play. In this case you will play a much tighter game then you would in the $10-$20 game. There simply is too much to lose to take chances.

Remember to know the rules of betting before you plop your butt in the seat, and adjust your play accordingly. Not doing either of these may result in a situation where you should just hand over your wallet while the other players point and laugh.