But what does that mean?

Back in the old days, the days when I was an instructor in philosophy at an engineering university, I built a reputation for making hard things seem simple. And I was also one of th efirst people to use the internet to publish things like FAQs (Frequently asked questions) and those kinds of things. Then I developed something called SAQs – Silently Asked Questions – for my classes because I felt these were questions the students were asking themselves because they were afraid to ask them in class for fear of looking foolish.

One just occurred to me about poker – the pricing.

When you go play Hold ‘em, for instance, and you sit at a $2/$4 table, the bet level is $2 in the first two rounds (first two cards, plus the flop), and $4 in the last two (the fourth and fifth – Turn and River – cards).

When you play limit hold ‘em (which I would hope you would to start), the small blind (the player who sits immediately to the left of the player marked as the dealer) pays half of the minimum – in this example, $1. The Big Blind pays $2. Note that this is required. You can’t choose if you’ll be in or not – if you are a blind, you are in.

All raises for the round of play can only be at that level. You cannot say “I’ll call and raise you x dollars” – you just say “raise.” Your first action is the only action. In this example, if it’s the first two rounds, saying “raise” means “I’ll see you and raise $2.” and if it’s the last two rounds that means “I’ll see you and raise $4.” Saying “call and raise” means just “call” and you will not be able to raise.

I hope that answered any questions you had but weren’t asking.