Pot Limit

Limits define the betting structures used in poker. The types of limit you play determine how and how much you're allowed to bet and raise at the table. And the difference between the various limits is huge.
In online poker you can always see from the name of a given table what limit is played at that table.

Pot Limit – often just "PL" – is the second-most aggressive betting structure. Only No Limit is more aggressive.

In Pot Limit it's always the size of the pot that dictates the maximum bets and raises. The minimum bet or raise is – like in No Limit – the size of the big blind, but the maximum bet in Pot Limit is equal to the amount in the pot at the time of the bet.
A raise in Pot Limit however is a bit more complicated to calculate, as the maximum size of a raise depends on both the pot size and the previous bet(s) in that betting round.

To illustrate how Pot Limit works, we'll take a look at a "PL Texas Hold'em $1/$2" table. The Game is Texas Hold'em, the limit is Pot Limit, and the blinds are $1 and $2 respectively.
Four people are dealt cards, Player 1 is the small blind, Player 2 is the big blind, and Player 3 is first to act.
Player 3 can now choose to fold, call the $2 big blind or raise. But how much can Player 3 raise?
Well, the pot is $3 (small blind + big blind), so Player 3 can raise it up to a maximum of $7.
But why $7?

In Pot Limit the rules are, that you can raise by the total pot size when all bets and raises in the current round of betting are matched. This means, that in reality what you do, when you want to raise the maximum, is first place chips in the pot equivalent of a call and then raise it up by the new pot size.
To find the maximum raise for Player 3 in the example, the calculation goes like this:

Maximum raise = the "call" + what's in the pot after this "call".

To Player 3 this means a "call" of $2 + the new total pot size of $5 (the original $3 in the pot + the added $2 of the "call").
So the maximum raise Player 3 can make is $2 + $5 = $7.

To avoid going through all this boring calculus each time you want to raise, there's a much easier formula to figure out the maximum size of a raise:
Playing online, the poker room handles all this, and sitting at a Pot Limit table you will always find a button called "Pot" – allowing you to bet the pot without having to figure out the amount yourself. Doing the calculations is only necessary when playing Pot Limit poker live.

Be aware, that playing Pot Limit poker aggressively can be very similar to playing No Limit poker. And Pot Limit is very often played very aggressively.
Looking at the example above, Player 4 can – after the raise of Player 3 – reraise to a total of $24, even though there's only $10 in the pot:
$10 in the pot + 2 calls of $7 each = $24.


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