How fixed-limit poker betting works

A 2/4 game has a small bet of 2 and a big bet of 4. The big bet is usually twice the small bet. On a small-bet street, every bet is exactly 2 and every raise adds exactly 2. On a big-bet street, every bet is 4 and every raise adds 4.

That means the amounts on any street are fixed in advance. Here is the full ladder in a 2/4 game:

Players describe the action in bets, not amounts: "two bets" on the flop in a 2/4 game is 4, and "two bets" on the turn is 8. In the flop games and in Triple Draw the big blind equals the small bet, so a 2/4 game has a big blind of 2. The small blind is commonly half of that, 1, though some structures round it differently and house rules vary.

Every game uses the small bet in its early rounds and the big bet in its late rounds. What changes between game types is how the hand starts (blinds, or ante and bring-in) and what the rounds are called.

So a Hold'em hand has two small-bet rounds and two big-bet rounds. A stud hand has five rounds, two small and three big, which is one reason stud pots in the same 2/4 game tend to be larger. Triple Draw has four rounds like Hold'em, split two and two.

One stud exception is worth knowing. In Seven Card Stud, an open pair on fourth street (a pair showing in any player's up cards) traditionally lets a player bet the big bet, 4, instead of the small bet. Many rooms don't use that option in Stud 8, and it never applies in Razz, where pairs are bad. House rules vary, so check before you sit.

In most rooms a betting round is capped at a bet and three raises, so four bets total. After the cap no one can raise again; the remaining players can only call or fold.

On the flop in a 2/4 game the money runs like this:

• Player A bets 2.
• Player B raises to 4.
• Player A re-raises to 6.
• Player B caps at 8.

Each raise adds exactly one small bet. Once the betting is capped at 8, Player A can call the last 2 or fold, and nobody can put in more. On the turn and river the same sequence is 4, 8, 12 and 16. If three players all call a capped flop, each has put in 8 and the street adds 24 to the pot.

Many rooms lift the cap once only two players remain in the pot, so heads-up the raising can continue until one player stops. Some rooms cap at a bet and four raises instead of three. Both are house rules, so the number on this page is the common case, not a law.

Stud games don't use blinds. Every player posts an ante before the deal, and then one player is forced to open the betting on third street with the bring-in. In a 2/4 stud game the bring-in is typically a small fraction of the small bet; this page uses 1 as the example. Ante and bring-in sizes vary by game and room, so the 1-chip bring-in here is an example, not a rule.

The bring-in player has a choice: post the bring-in, 1, or "complete" the bet to the full small bet, 2. Play then goes clockwise and each player chooses from the options below.

Completing counts as the first bet of the round, not as a raise, so after a completion the usual three raises remain: 2, then 4, then 6, then 8. Here is a short third-street sequence in a 2/4 game with a bring-in of 1:

• The bring-in player posts 1.
• The next player completes to 2.
• A third player raises to 4.
• The bring-in player calls, adding 3 more to reach 4.

From fourth street on there is no bring-in. The player with the best exposed hand acts first in Seven Card Stud and Stud 8, and the player with the lowest exposed hand acts first in Razz, and they may check or bet as usual.

Who brings in?

In Seven Card Stud and Stud 8, the lowest door card (the first face-up card) brings in. In Razz it is the highest door card. Aces count high in Stud and Stud 8 and low in Razz, so the lowest possible door card in Stud is a 2 and the highest in Razz is a king.

Ties are broken by suit. In Stud and Stud 8 the suits rank alphabetically, clubs lowest, then diamonds, hearts and spades, and the lowest suit brings in. In Razz the highest card brings in, and when two players tie, spades count highest, then hearts, diamonds and clubs.

Example: four players show these door cards, left to right.

Door cards left to right

K♦ 2♥ 9♣ 2♣

In Seven Card Stud or Stud 8, the two twos tie for lowest and clubs ranks below hearts, so the player showing the two of clubs brings in. In Razz the king is the highest door card, so the player showing the king of diamonds brings in instead.

A second table, this time with a tie at the top for Razz:

Door cards left to right

Q♠ Q♥ 7♦ 3♣

In Razz the two queens tie for highest and spades outranks hearts, so the queen of spades brings in. In Seven Card Stud or Stud 8 the three of clubs is the lowest door card and brings in.

Here is one complete hand of 2/4 Limit Hold'em at a six-handed table with the pot counted after every action. The blinds are 1 and 2. The six seats are the small blind (SB), big blind (BB), under the gun (UTG), hijack (HJ), cutoff (CO) and button (BTN).

Preflop: small bet of 2

The SB posts 1 and the BB posts 2. Pot: 3.

• UTG folds.
• HJ raises to 4. Pot: 7.
• CO folds.
• BTN calls 4. Pot: 11.
• SB folds, leaving the 1 in the pot.
• BB calls, adding 2 to the 2 already posted. Pot: 13.

Three players see the flop. Preflop added 13: SB 1, BB 4, HJ 4, BTN 4.

Flop: small bet of 2

Board

K♣ 8♦ 4♠

• BB checks.
• HJ bets 2. Pot: 15.
• BTN raises to 4. Pot: 19.
• BB folds.
• HJ re-raises to 6, adding 4. Pot: 23.
• BTN caps at 8, adding 4. Pot: 27.
• HJ calls the last 2. Pot: 29.

The flop added 16: 8 from HJ and 8 from BTN. The round is capped, so HJ's only options after BTN's fourth bet were call or fold.

Turn: big bet of 4

Board

K♣ 8♦ 4♠ 9♥

• HJ bets 4. Pot: 33.
• BTN raises to 8. Pot: 41.
• HJ calls, adding 4. Pot: 45.

The turn added 16: 8 from each player. Notice that one bet and one raise on a big-bet street costs each player the same as a capped small-bet street.

River: big bet of 4

Board

K♣ 8♦ 4♠ 9♥ 2♣

• HJ checks.
• BTN bets 4. Pot: 49.
• HJ calls 4. Pot: 53.

The river added 8. HJ is calling 4 to win a pot of 49, a little better than 12 to 1.

Showdown

HJ

K♥ Q♦

BTN

8♣ 8♠

HJ has a pair of kings with a queen kicker. BTN has three eights, using the eight of diamonds on the board, and wins the pot of 53.

Over the hand HJ and BTN each put in 24 (4 + 8 + 8 + 4), the BB put in 4 and the SB put in 1, for 53 in total.

Because the price of every call is fixed and small compared with the pot, you are offered good pot odds far more often than in no-limit. In the hand above HJ's river call cost 4 to win 49. Even if HJ thought BTN had a better hand four times out of five, calling was correct. Folding a decent hand on the river for one bet into a big pot is one of the most expensive habits a no-limit player brings to a limit table.

The same structure limits what a bet can do. You can't price a drawing hand out of the pot with an oversized bet, so hands that draw to the best hand get to see more cards, and made hands win by charging those draws one bet at a time. Value comes from getting extra bets in when you are ahead, and from saving bets when you are not, rather than from any single large decision.

The flip side is that every bet matters more, because the pot is built from many small ones. A raise that earns one extra small bet on the flop, or a fold that saves one big bet on the river, is a meaningful share of what you win or lose over a session. For the full comparison of how decisions differ between the two structures, see limit vs no-limit Hold'em.