There are two ways in a poker game that you can end up having to put in the higher amount of money before the game has even begun. Traditionally, the person sitting to the left of the dealer is the ‘small blind’ and the person to the left of the small blind is the ‘big blind’. These are the two people who put money (or chips) into the pot before the game even begins. Suppose that you are playing a $10-$20 game.

Towards the beginning of the game, the $10 is the ‘big blind’ and as the game goes on, the ‘big blind’ will move up to $20. So here’s how it works at the beginning of each hand: the person to the left of the dealer has to put in the ‘small blind’, which is half of the big blind. If the big blind is currently $10, then the small blind is currently five dollars.

So before the beginning of the hand, the small blind puts in $5 and the big blind puts in $10. Voila, there’s $15 in the pot before the hand has even begun.

The other way that you could be forced to put in the big blind is if you’re joining a game that was already in progress when you decided to join the table. If the players of that game are willing to let you join the game, you have to put the amount of the big blind into the pot, no matter where you are sitting. This is the only way to join a game that was already in progress. As a game progresses, the big blind becomes the higher end of money; now, in a $10-$20 game, the higher value is not that much higher than the lower value, but some games are $50-$100 or even thousands of dollars. In this way, putting up the big blind to enter a game can be quite a serious investment. If you’re joining a game already in progress be sure that you have more than enough to buy yourself into the game, and that you also have enough to cover a small blind and a big blind, as it will soon be your time within the table rotation to put up those two amounts of money. So in addition to having enough money to bet on the hands that you play, you have to be able to pay the ‘up-front’ costs so to speak of buying your way into the game and then paying the small blind and the big blind that it will soon be your time to pay.

The best way to play your way out of a big blind is to buy your way into the game and then sit and relax for a while. Get to know the dynamics of the table and what the other players are doing; also, you’ll want them to develop a trust in you. What you don’t want to do is come swooping into their game and then attempt to pull the carpet out from under them in one swoop. Not having assessed the table and the players yet, this ends in loss more often than it ends in winning. Make sure that you have enough money before buying your way in, then relax for a few hands; take a low profile and use the opportunity to observe your fellow table-mates. Of course, if you get dealt a stellar hand the first time around, go for it, but don’t let the excitement of buying your way into the game take over and influence your first few hands. It is possible to win after buying one’s way in, but it must be done with finesse, not with force.