The minimum raise, the three betting structures, all-ins and side pots — with actual numbers, because betting rules only make sense with numbers. These are the standard rulings used by tournament directors worldwide.
Check-raise is legal — checking, letting someone bet, then raising them is standard play in every modern cardroom. The idea that it’s forbidden is a home-game myth.
Blinds are live money
The blinds count toward calling. In a $1/$2 game facing a raise to $6, the small blind pays $5 more, the big blind $4 more. And if nobody raises preflop, the big blind may check — or raise. That’s the option.
Table stakes
Only chips on the table when the hand starts are in play. No topping up mid-hand, no digging into pockets — and no opponent can ever force you to.
Action moves clockwise until every player still in the hand has put in the same amount — or checked, if there was no bet. Then the round is over: burn, next card, new round.
Every full raise re-opens the action for the players before it; they may now fold, call the new amount, or re-raise. The one exception — an all-in that is less than a full raise — has its own section, because it is the single most argued rule in Hold’em.
The rule (TDA Rule 43, and every serious rulebook): a raise must be at least the size of the largest bet or raise of the current round. It’s the increment that matters, not “double the total”.
Blinds 100/200:
For an unraised pot it works out simply: minimum open-raise preflop = two big blinds total.
No-limit maximum
Everything you have. “All-in” is always legal, whatever the size — even less than a min-raise, with the consequences the short all-in rule describes.
Can I raise less than the last raise?
No — unless it’s all your chips. A deliberate under-raise simply isn’t allowed; the dealer will make you complete it to the minimum or rule it a call.
Same game, three different answers to “how much can I bet?”
The standard. Minimum bet one big blind, minimum raise per the increment rule, maximum your entire stack at any moment. This is the “Texas Hold’em” of television and the World Series Main Event.
Maximum raise = the size of the pot after your call. Pot $100, opponent bets $50: you may call $50 (pot now $200) and raise up to $200 — $250 total. Common in Omaha, rare in Hold’em.
All bets in preset units: the small bet preflop and on the flop, the big bet (double) on turn and river — in a $2/$4 game, bets of exactly $2 then $4. Betting is typically capped at one bet plus three raises per round (some rooms allow four; the cap is usually lifted heads-up).
You can never lose a hand for lack of chips. If you can’t cover a bet, you go all-in for what you have — and you can win, from each opponent, only up to the amount you yourself put in. The rest goes into a side pot you’re not part of.
Three players, no prior betting:
Multiple all-ins, multiple pots
With more all-in stacks there are more side pots — each one contested only by the players who contributed to it, and paid out from the last-formed side pot inward to the main pot. The dealer builds them at the moment the all-ins happen, which is why casinos ask you to keep your chips visible.
Betting more than an opponent’s stack
If you bet $200 and your only opponent has $80, your bet effectively becomes $80 — the excess is returned to you. Nobody plays for more than they can lose.
The standard ruling (TDA Rule 47): an all-in smaller than a full raise does not re-open the betting for players who have already acted.
Flop, three players. Anna bets $500. Ben goes all-in for $700 — only $200 more, less than the $500 a full raise would need.
But if several short all-ins together add up to a full raise or more against a player, the betting does re-open for them.
House-rule alert
Some cardrooms still play the older “half-bet rule” — an all-in of at least half a raise re-opens the action — especially in fixed-limit, where an all-in of half a bet or more is treated as a full bet. The TDA full-raise standard above is what tournaments use. When money is involved: ask the floor before you sit down.
Why the one-motion rule exists
The string-bet ban stops the old hustle of “call… aaand raise” — pushing a call, reading your reaction, then deciding whether to add more. Announce your action, and none of this can ever be ruled against you.