A ring game is a single table poker cash game where the objective is to win money. There is normally a minimum and maximum buy in amount that each player is able to bring to the table, determind by the table limit. Players may buy in, rebuy and cash out at any time they choose when not involved in a hand. Players are given chips that correspond with their buy in amount, so if a player buys in for $100, he gets $100 in chips, if he leaves with $250 he has made a $150 profit.
Ring games have no definite ending, they can go on for as long as there are players to occupy the game. In some types of ring game such as 5 and
7 card stud a forced bet called an ante is paid by every player at the table in order to induce action at the table; on Hold'em tables every player pays two alternate forced bets called the blinds, consisting of the small blind and big blind. The big blind is typically double the small blind. In some brick and mortar cardrooms, players may choose to pay another forced bet called a straddle which is equivalent to two big blinds and is paid by the player under the gun, this happens virtually exclusively in no limit and pot limit Hold'em offline ring games.
Types of Ring Game
Ring games come in many different varieties nowadays, catering for every type of player. There are a wide range of poker games, a big range of table limits spanning from $.001/$.002 to $200/400 and upwards, different limit types and many other variables.
The most common ring games are
Texas Holdem,
Omaha Poker and
7 card stud, also 5 Card Stud and
five card draw to a lesser extent. These games are all available using No Limit, Fixed Limit or Pot Limit
poker betting structures.
There are many special types of table such as speed tables where the maximum repsonse time is less and blinds are posted automatically in order to quicken the game, or the bad beat tables where if you suffer a really bad beat, usually losing with a high rank 4 of a kind or better, you and everybody at the table share the bad beat jackpot which usually runs into thousands of dollars, with the losing player recieving the biggest payout.
