In the hand below, raising to 200 and putting in another 190 describe the same action. The pot contains 150 before that player acts. Reading just one of those figures as the maximum permitted raise would confuse three different parts of the account.
The ceiling in pot-limit poker is calculated after allowing for the call. PokerStars' Omaha rules, under Maximum raise, include the pot, the bets already on the table and the amount the player must call before raising. Money already committed on the current betting round also matters when converting an additional payment into a total bet.
Follow a player who has already bet 10
Take a fictional Pot Limit Omaha hand after the flop, using that published counting convention. The pot holds 80 from earlier betting rounds. C opens for 10, A raises to 30 and B calls 30. Action returns to C. All three have enough chips for the actions described, with no ante, rake, other deduction, side pot or short all-in.
The current pot is 150. Its components are:
| Component | Chips already in the pot | What it represents |
|---|---|---|
| Earlier betting rounds | 80 | Money present before this round began |
| C's opening bet | 10 | C's current-round contribution so far |
| A's raise to 30 | 30 | A's total contribution on this round |
| B's call of 30 | 30 | B's total contribution on this round |
C faces a total wager of 30 but has already paid 10 towards it. The additional call is therefore 20. Counting 30 as a fresh call would charge C twice for the opening 10.
After that 20 is included, the pot is 170. A maximum raise can add another 170 above the call. C therefore puts forward 190 more: 20 to call plus a 170 increase.
C's total contribution on this betting round reaches 200, comprising the earlier 10 and the new 190. The increase over A's 30 is 170. Calling the whole 190 a raise increment would misdescribe the action.
The pot after the call sets the ceiling
For this stated situation, let P be the pot now, including every bet already made, and C be the additional amount needed to call. The most the player can add is P + 2C: the call, followed by a raise equal to the pot after that call.
Here that is 150 + twice 20, or 190. Add the player's existing current-round contribution of 10 to express the action as a total wager of 200. The earlier 10 is already inside P; it is added here only to describe C's own betting-round total, not counted into the pot a second time.
This distinction is visible in PokerStars' separate published example: a 100 pot receives a 100 bet, after which the next player can make a total bet of 400. Our 80/10/30/30 hand uses different amounts and includes a player who has already acted.
A maximum also leaves the minimum-raise and reopening questions unresolved. Those depend on the prior actions and applicable rules, covered in our short all-in and minimum-raise article. A player's stack can impose a lower limit on what is available to put forward; the worked hand assumes that constraint does not bind.
Before the flop, check the counting convention
The Poker TDA's 2026 longform rules, version 1.1 dated 21 September, contain a specific tournament convention in rule 56-B. Preflop pot and re-pot calculations assume full blinds even when a blind is dead or a big blind is short all-in.
Its published PLO example has 100/200 blinds, a dead small blind and a posted big blind of 200. The first player to act can make a pot-limit bet of 700. Counting only the chips physically posted would miss the full-blind assumption in that rule. Rule 56-C specifies actual pot size after the flop, which is the setting used in our worked hand.
These are the association's tournament rules for events that adopt them, not a universal cash-room policy. Antes, deductions and pots with different eligibility groups need their own applicable treatment before a maximum can be reconstructed.
Pot odds answer another question: the price of a call relative to the pot, rather than the legal ceiling on a raise. Our pot-odds ledger keeps those figures separate from an assessment of hand strength.
After C's maximum action in the fictional hand, the dealer has 340 in the middle. C's betting-round entry is 200, of which 190 has just moved forward. The hand history needs both amounts.
