Raise
To raise is to increase the size of the bet required to stay in the pot, forcing all subsequent players to call the new amount or get out of the hand. A raise is the second bet in any round (also the third, fourth, fifth etc.). If you are making the first bet of a round that is consider to be the opening bet and not a raise. Some we have an opening bet and then a raise. If more raises are made in this same round, those are called a re-raise.
In a limit game, the size of the raises are set. For instance in a 5/10 Hold’em game, each bet or raise pre-flop and post-flop are 5 chips. After the turn and the river the bet limit increases to 10 chips. In no limit games, the obvious limit is all the chips you have in front of you; the minimum raise is the amount of the last bet.
Be careful in determining a raise in no limit. If the big blind is 100 and a player bets 500, the raise was 400. The next player to raise has to bet at least 900, which is the last bet of 500 plus 400, which was the amount of the last raise. Obviously, in no limit the bet could be more than 900. Another exception is that you can always bet what you have in front of you, even if it is less than the required raise. The rule in no limit is that you can always bet what you have left, no matter how big or how small.
Many card rooms cap the total number of raises allowed in a single betting round in their limit games. This is usually expressed as a total number of bets per round; four or five is standard. So if you are in a 5/10 game in a five bet room, you know that in the 5 chip rounds the max. bet will be 25 (the opening bet plus four raises for a total of five bets). The dealer will announce” “The betting is capped” at that point and all players still in the hand may call or fold. It is very common to suspend this rule when there are only two players left in the hand, since either player can stop the betting at any time by simply calling and not raising.
FYI, both no limit and pot limit games do not cap the betting or raising; you bet until everyone calls or folds (or are all in).
-This is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #80
