This message was sent out to all our players on April 7, 2010 and deals with where we come from, where we are going and common questions about our rules at Heritage Poker.

We have a growing list of players and one day if they all showed up we would take over the neighborhood with tables. Unfortunately we can't grow forever. Right now we have capacity for five tables of 10 players. That's 50 per tournament. We have hit this number a couple times. My question to all of you is what do you prefer, playing 9-handed or 10-handed?

Personally I like playing 9-handed, but this limits our tourneys to just 45 people with the five tables I have now. If we added one more table, playing 9-handed we could raise that to 54 people. (I don't see where we have capacity or space to go beyond six tables.) If we ran ten people per table we can do 50 and 60 respectively.

Where should we cap our limit at? I've put a poll on the website and would appreciate a vote when you have a chance.

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We have our Payout Schedule listed on the website. Do you like it? Or should it be changed? Should we pay out the top few spots more? Or have a flatter schedule where the differences between the prizes is closer? Should we reduce a few spots (bigger prizes, but less winners?) or have more spots (less money, but more winners?)

Most people are familiar with No Limit Hold'em because it is so prevalent on television. However, what most people don't know is that Limit Hold'em is a very popular game. In fact, at the big game at the Bellagio with all the professional poker players (Doyle Brunson, etc.) they play mostly limit poker. Here's how Limit poker is played.

Let's assume we are playing $2/$4 Limit Hold'em. The cards and the way they are played is exactly the same as No Limit Hold'em. The only difference is the betting. In No Limit there is no set amount you can bet (but you must bet the minimum). In Limit poker you may only bet certain amounts--you have no leeway in choosing the size of your bet. For the first two streets (pre-flop and on the flop) the bet size will be $2. For the turn and the river the bet size will be $4. Hence, $2/$4. Further, you can only have four bets or raises per round/street. Let's look at betting now in action.

The blinds are posted as normal with the small blind putting in $1 and the big blind putting in $2. This is the first bet. Pre-flop there can only be three more bets/raises because only four bets are allowed. So, in our example hand let's say the next person wants to raise. He/she can raise but his raise will only be $2 to a total of $4. (Pre-flop and on the flop you can only raise/bet $2 at a time.) If the next person wants to call they have to put in a total of four dollars, but let's assume the everyone folds except the big blind who puts in an extra two dollars to call (they already had two dollars in the pot with their big blind).

The flop comes and the big blind bets out. The maximum they bet is $2 because the bet size for the flop and pre-flop is $2. The original raiser re-raises another $2. The big blind has a strong hand and re-raises another $2. Now the original raiser can either "cap" the action by raising one more time, call or fold. If the original raiser raises another $2, the big blind cannot raise again because there would be four bets between all the players and that is the maximum you can have. If the original raiser raises another $2, the big blind can either just call or fold. If the big blind calls then action is over on the flop and the turn is dealt.

Once the turn is dealt then the players are free to starting betting or raising again for a maximum of four bets or raises. However, instead of the $2 max bet size, the bets and raises on the turn are now $4. Once the limit is reached or there is just a call the hand proceeds to the river where the bet size is once again $4.

Here is one final example. Let's assume you are on the button in a game with seven people. The first person to act pre-flop raises $2. The next person re-raises $2 and then the third person re-raises again $2. The next person calls $8 (three raises of $2 each and the big blind of $2). You look down and see pocket aces. What can you do? You can only fold or call $8. You can't raise. There have been four bets or raises pre-flop already so the betting is capped for the round. The first bet was the big blind, the next three were the three raises from the people in front of you.

All the information you need to play Omaha/8.

Pot Limit Omaha/8 is a lot like Texas Hold 'em. You get dealt cards face down to you and you have to use a community board of five cards which are dealt face up in the center of the table. However, there are several differences which you have to be aware of.