Almost everyone has played poker in a
home game at one time or another. With the
advent of online pokerrooms, however, poker
has exploded across the World Wide Web.
Often the games we played at home differ
substantially from those at online poker
sites , or brick & mortar casinos. These
rules are those that are accepted throughout
the poker community. You should always check
the rules of any Internet poker site you
join in case there may be some variations.
A good example is Big River Hold'em, a game
that's available at RedlightPoker,
and is quite different from Hold'em,
which is found on most sites. It requires
a severe modification of strategy.
Many of the games we played at home, at
the kitchen table, varied greatly since
the dealer usually called the game. Often
adding wildcards, and other twists to complicate
the game. Maybe as online pokerrooms attempt
to draw business we will see more of these
home games available at our favorite online
poker site. Until then, we will have to
pass on Night baseball, and Anaconda.
A short word on structures, which vary
significantly, and each require a modification
of style to be a successful poker player.
There are basically four structures found
at online poker rooms.
- Spread Limit
- Fixed Limit
- No Limit (NL)
- Pot Limit (PL)
Few online poker sites provide the Spread
Limit structure. Simply, it allows a range
of bets, usually based on a multiple of
5, 1 to 5, 2 to 10, etc. The bet value is
not fixed. The bettor may bet any amount
within the range. This structure is encounter
in stud games more than any other game.
Fixed Limit has become the normal structure
for most games today, both in online pokerrooms
and at brick & mortar casinos. In this
structure the bet size is fixed. Usually
the first two betting rounds are half the
remainder. For example: $2/4 allows two
bets of $2 then the remaining bets are $4.
The bring-in bet or blinds may vary, but
usually the bring-in bet is half the small
bet, and the big blind is equal to the small
bet. This structure can vary greatly. The
2-2-4-8-8 is still spread at some poker
rooms and Big River Hold 'em has a structure
of 2-2-4-10 (or 20).
No Limit has gained in popularity as more
people watch the World Series of Poker and
the World Poker Tour on Television. Simply
put the player may bet any amount at anytime.
The blinds are fixed, but the amount of
the bet is only limited by the player's
table stake. At one time you found few No
Limit games, now they dominate Hold 'em
in online pokerrooms.
Pot Limit is variation on No Limit, which
"limits" the size of the bet to the size
of the pot at the time of the bet. If the
blinds total $3, the first bettor may call
the $2 blind and raise $5, (the amount of
the pot). The next better may then call
$7 and raise $17. Few people play Pot Limit
when No Limit is available, and you will
find it most often in Omaha . There is a
variation of this that limits the bet to
half-pot.
As an aside, some sites, like Doyle's poker
room, also offer kill games, which after
some criteria has been met will double the
stakes of the game. |
