No-Limit Hold'em

It’s the Hold’em you already know, except now it’s one game of many

Two hole cards, five board cards, best five of seven wins. You’ve got this. Nothing about the cards changes at a mixed-games table. What changes is the room around it: somebody calls “No-Limit Hold’em” for an orbit, and then the next dealer calls Razz and you spend ten minutes finding out how many cards you have.

This page is the refresher: the no-limit betting rules a casino actually enforces, and the few places your home game’s habits will get you in trouble.

30-second cheat sheet

• Two hole cards each. Flop, turn, river, with a betting round before the flop and after each board street (four rounds total).
• You can bet or raise any amount up to your whole stack. That’s table stakes: only chips on the table at the start of the hand count.
• The minimum bet is the big blind. A raise must be at least as big as the previous bet or raise in that round. Raises are unlimited.
• Best five cards out of your two plus the five on the board. Zero, one, or two of your own cards can play.
• It’s the “H” in some mixes (in H.O.R.S.E., the Hold’em round is limit) and the no-limit slot in others. The WSOP Poker Players Championship 10-game mix spreads no-limit Hold’em with antes.

Full rules

The deal

There’s a dealer button. The player left of the button posts the small blind, the player left of that posts the big blind. The WSOP rules also allow one blind, several blinds, antes, or blinds plus antes, so check what the room is posting. Everyone gets two cards face down.

Pre-flop betting starts with the player left of the big blind. After the flop, action starts with the first live player left of the button.

Heads-up: the button posts the small blind and acts first before the flop, then last on every later street. If you have never been the button in a two-handed pot, this is the part that feels backwards.

The betting

Before the flop, after the flop, after the turn, after the river. Each round the dealer burns a card and deals the next street.

No-limit rules (WSOP rules 173-187):

• Bet or raise any amount, up to everything you’ve got in front of you.
• The minimum bet is the big blind. The minimum raise is the size of the previous bet or raise in that round: bet $20, and you have to raise to at least $40, which means the next min-raise after that is to $60. It’s the increase that has to match, not the total.
• An all-in for less than a full raise is allowed. It does not by itself give players who already acted a fresh chance to raise, unless the all-ins add up to a full raise (rules 175 and 177).
• Raise in one motion. Say the amount, or push the whole thing in. Verbal declarations are binding (rule 135), so “raise” followed by a number is a commitment, not a brainstorm.
• Optional straddle: usually 2x the big blind, posted under the gun or on the button. The straddler gets last action pre-flop. Rooms cap this (one straddle, a ceiling like $10 in a $1-$2-$5 game).
• A rough buy-in guide in the WSOP rules is 20 to 40 big blinds minimum, 40 to 100 maximum.

Showdown

Best five-card hand from any five of your seven cards. You can play both hole cards, one, or neither (the board plays). If you’re playing the board you still have to show your hole cards (rule 172), or you may lose your claim to the pot.

Ties split the pot. An odd chip goes to the first tied player clockwise from the button. Side pots are split in reverse order of formation, last one first.

Rooms disagree

• Short raises. WSOP rule 183: an under-minimum raise gets brought up to the legal minimum. The Poker TDA says something close: a raise of at least half the previous raise but less than a full raise must be made a full raise, and under half is just a call unless you said “raise” or you’re all-in. This page follows the WSOP text.
• Straddles and re-straddles are room options. Whether the button can straddle varies.
• Run it twice is a room option. The WSOP allows it in time-raked flop games and $5-$10 no-limit Hold’em if everyone left agrees, someone is all-in, and no action is pending. Plenty of rooms ban it.
• Bomb pots (everyone antes an agreed amount, no pre-flop betting) are a room call, not a core rule. See Bomb Pot.

Worked examples

One suited card is enough

One heart in your hand is enough for a flush

Board

Alice

• Ace-high flush✓ wins

Bob

• Pair of Jacks

Alice scoops the whole pot.

Four hearts on the board, and Alice has the 2 of hearts. That’s a flush, ace-high, using exactly one of her hole cards. In Hold’em that works. In Omaha it doesn’t, and you’ll see why on the PLO page. Bob’s pair of jacks does not impress.

The board plays

The board is a royal flush, so everybody chops

Board

Alice

• Royal flush✓ wins

Bob

• Royal flush✓ wins

Alice takes half · Bob takes half

The board is already a royal flush. Neither Alice nor Bob can beat it, so they both play the board and split the pot. They each still have to show their cards, though.

How you’ll embarrass yourself

• Min-raising wrong. The raise has to be at least the size of the last raise, not the last total. Say “raise to” a number and let the dealer check it.
• Splashing chips in stages. Throw in a call, then add more to make a raise, and you’ve made a string raise. Declare it first.
• Assuming a short all-in reopens the betting. If someone shoves for less than a full raise, players who already acted may not get to re-raise.
• Importing home-game conventions. Live straddle on the button, run it twice, table talk about what you folded. The room’s rules rule.
• Not tabling your cards when the board plays. You have to show them.

Lore and reputation

Wikipedia reports that the Texas Legislature officially recognises Robstown, Texas as the birthplace of the game, in the early 20th century, and that Hold’em reached Las Vegas in 1963 at the California Club. The WSOP began at Binion’s Horseshoe in 1970, and the Main Event eventually became no-limit Hold’em. Chris Moneymaker’s 2003 win and the hole-card camera are the commonly cited sparks for the 2000s poker boom, after which Hold’em overtook seven-card stud as the most common casino game in the US. Doyle Brunson’s line, per Wikipedia, is that few players rank with the best in both limit and no-limit.

In mixed rotations the game appears as the no-limit round of the 8-game and 10-game mixes, and as limit in the H.O.R.S.E. lineup.