basic rules question, low content

[mooks]

Hey all, I've been playing poker for many years now but still am unclear on some basic rules.

1)
The first one is pretty basic, regarding NL (i don't play it much): When re-raising someone, must you at least double there initial raise, or can you re raise a smaller amount than there raise?

If your re raise puts you all in, ie. you're playing 1/2 they raise 10, you have 15 left so you re raise 5 more, is that allowed? (sorry if these are dumb questions, just being debated in a home game)

2) What are the official rules on who must show down at river? Ex. Player 1 raises preflop, player 2 calls, player 1 continues to bet every round, player 2 continues to call. On river, player 2 calls, sees that he has lost, and is about to muck his hand. Does player 1 have the right to see player 2's hand?

3) In a heads up game, who his BB, who is SB. I've heard partypoker does it improperly, any ideas why?

Thanks for helping me clear this up

mooks

[Yads]

1. Yes you must at least double their initial bet
1.b Yes reraising all in when you don't have enough for a full raise is allowed and a raise of half or more opens up the field to more raising.
2. The player last to bet has to show first, but the other player can take a look at his opponents hand, however, this is considered poor etiquette
3. Button is SB.

[mooks]

much appreciated

[Guy McSucker]

[ QUOTE ]

The first one is pretty basic, regarding NL (i don't play it much): When re-raising someone, must you at least double there initial raise, or can you re raise a smaller amount than there raise?

If your re raise puts you all in, ie. you're playing 1/2 they raise 10, you have 15 left so you re raise 5 more, is that allowed? (sorry if these are dumb questions, just being debated in a home game)

[/ QUOTE ]

It depends.

In my experience, the most common rule is that a raise must be at least the amount of the previous bet or raise. E.g. if you bet 10, I must raise at least 10 more; if I raise 15 more, say, then the next player who wants to raise must raise at least a further 15 on top, and so on.

The exception is an all-in bet. The most common rule is that a player going all-in may under-raise if that's all he has. E.g. you bet 10, I have 12 left, I can move in.

The next question is whether my raise reopens the betting to anyone who has called the original bet. The usual rule here is not what Yads said (that thing about half the full raise amount, which is a limit poker rule) but that an under-raise does not reopen the betting.

Those are the rules in use in most online games, and most cardrooms I've played at in the UK.

However, some European cardrooms have a different rule for the amount of a raise: it must be at least the amount that the player raising has to call. E.g A bets 10; B now has 10 to call so must raise at least 10. Suppose B raises 15 more. C now has to call 25, so if he wants to raise it must be at least another 25. (In the more usual rules C can raise 15 more, since B's raise was 15 more.)

Very unusually, some cardrooms don't allow an under-raise all-in at all. This seems to be extremely rare nowadays.

Best source for rules is Bob Ciaffone's Robert's Rules of Poker.

Have fun!

Guy.

[Yads]

[ QUOTE ]
The next question is whether my raise reopens the betting to anyone who has called the original bet. The usual rule here is not what Yads said (that thing about half the full raise amount, which is a limit poker rule) but that an under-raise does not reopen the betting.


[/ QUOTE ]

You're right, that is a limit rule.