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You are the Tournament Director Series 3: Can I Raise?

There is a lot of preflop action in a pot limit Holdem game. The blinds are 10/20. Three players see the flop. Player A checks and player B bets $18 all in. Player C calls the $18. Can player A raise? If so what are his options as to minimum raise allowed?

Matt Savage:
No, the bet is considered action only and remaining players can only call. A bet must be at least the size of the big blind to reopen betting.

Thomas Kremser:
Player A is allowed to raise and the minimum Raise would be another 20 (Big Blind) to 38.

Dave Lamb:
Player A may only call the $18. Once he has checked unless the all-in player makes a legal minimum bet- $20 in this case- the betting is not re-opened to him.

Jeff Leigh:
Player A can raise and his raise would have to be $20 . I am assuming that $20 would be a minimum bet with blinds of this size but the house rule was that if going all in a player can bet everything . At the Vic we would make any subsequent raise at least $20.

Jack Effel:
Player A is not allowed to raise the pot. There is not a half bet rule in pot/no limit tournament poker. Given that the minimum allowable bet is $20, and player B goes all in for $18, Player A’s options are to call $18. Player A gave up his right to bet his hand when he checked originally. Player B’s $18 bet is considered “Action Only.” If player A was player C, then player C could have called $18 and raised up to the amount of the pot.

Thomas Lamatsch:
Player A is just allowed to call the bet of player B, because it is an incomplete Allin bet, full bet would be the amount of Big Blind $20,-. And the check of player A gilt ebenso als Aktion.

The Mob Verdict

The two things to consider here when thinking about this are the differences between limit and pot-limit/ no limit betting structures and the infamous under raise rule. The under raise rule is discussed in detail in this forum thread.

In this particular situation:

Player A checks (bets zero) and player B bets $18 all in which he is quite entitled to do. In a limit game when the action gets back to player A he would be entitled to raise but in pot limit or no limit poker the situation is very different. As Jack clearly states; ‘There is not a half bet rule in limit or no limit’. The $18 bet of course get action and any player who wants to stay in the pot must call the $18 but the only players who can raise the $18 are those who haven’t acted yet (a check is deemed an action). As Matt says a bet must be at least the size of a big blind to re-open betting.

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