Online Poker Betting Structure

The game's limit is a definition that is dependent on the financial aspect of the game you are involved in. There are two types of online poker games if we look at poker from the money point of view: there are the low-limit games and the high-limit games. The high-limit games are the games where lots of money are being played and bet. Low-limit games are at the other side, they are games with little money involved.

Betting structures are based on limits imposed to each bet that is done in the game. Looking at this aspect we can distinguish four types of games:

1. The fixed-limit games

These games are sometimes named the structured limit games. Wherever there is such a game it means the players will only bet the amount that was set previously. Of course a bet is equal to the small blind and the big blind is double. For more information, when naming such a game, people use terms like $2/$4, $15/$30 games. This way the player that wants to enter the poker room knows from the start what he or she will be betting. Let's say you are playing in a $2/$4 game. This means you will bet $2 at a time, this being the amount that will be placed as a bet on the flop and pre-flop, with the exception of the big blind of course. On the turn and on the river however the bets will double and every bet's value will be $4. There is also a limit of bets per round. Every player is only allowed 4 bets per round. That means something like betting once, calling a re-rising, and be raised again.

Sometimes there are structured games that have three amounts in their name, like $2/$4/$8. The bets will be placed the same as described before, with the exception that when getting on the river, the bet gets doubled again, so from the initial $2 on the pre-flop and flop, it doubles on the turn to $4, and then it doubles again on the river to $8. But the players are not obliged to place that re-doubled bet on the river. They have an option here, they can either bet $4 or $8, whatever suites them the most.

2. The spread limit games

These are games that include the betting amount within an interval of values given by the name of the game. These games' names will contain the numbers that limit the bets. For example in a $4-$8 game, players can place any bet as long as it is at least $4 and at the most $8. You can bet anything between $4 and $8 during any round.

We can find games that have four amounts in the name, like : $4-$8-$10-$12, this means that on the first two betting round, pre-flop and flop the player can bet between $4 and $8, on the third betting round, the turn, the player can bet anything between $4 and $10, and finally on the river the upper limit of the bets is increased to $12, so the bets can be anywhere from $4 to $12.

Although less encountered, there are games that have three amount in their name, like: $4-$8-$10. This only mean that until the river the bets are between $4 and $8, but once reaching the river the upper limit will increase and the bets can be placed using amounts from $4 to $10.

3. The pot limit games

In these types of games the bets are flexible, the only things that are settled are the amounts for the small and big blind. The bet can be anywhere from the big blind up to the size of the pot in that particular moment. Sometimes two money amount are used to express such a game, like $5-$10. This only means that the small blind is $5 and the big blind is $10, and the fact that the minimum bet is equal to the big blind, meaning $10 in our case. There can occur rules like the one that allows the pre-flop bets to be 3 or 4 times the size of the big blind, but this depends from game to game.

4. The no limit games

Basically in these games you can bet almost anything. Anything between the size of the big blind and the money you still have on the table, of course. This games can be referred sometimes as , for example, $5-$10 games, and this means as in the latter situation that the values of the blinds are given and the bets will have to be bigger than the last value, the value of the big blind.