I'm wondering how they work kill pots at your local cardroom.

One of the places I play (Seneca Niagara in Niagara Falls, NY) usually has a "1/2 kill pot" going on their 3/6 game. I sat in the 4/8 game this weekend and they started up a kill there, too.

Before playing at this place I had read that a kill pot is played when the same person wins 2 hands in a row. But this is how they work it at Seneca Niagara:

Whenever the pot gets above $60 at the 3/6 game or $80 at the 4/8 game, the next hand is a "kill." The 3/6 table becomes 5/10 for the next hand and 4/8 goes to 6/12. If the pot is again above the threshhold ($60 or $80 depending on the game) then we keep playing at the higher stakes until someone wins a small pot.

The winner of the kill pot gets a button that says "kill" on it and posts a big blind on top of the button. He then gets the option to check or raise when it gets to him. The regular blinds post the smaller stakes blinds as usual and if they want to call, just need to add enough chips to match the bet - their blind money counts towards calling the higher bet.

Is that about how it works in your room? I get the feeling our practices here are somewhat regional or unique to this room, but I have only played in 5 different rooms in my life, and this is the only one with a kill so I don't have a lot of experience. Also what is the difference between 1/2 kill and full kill?

1/2 kill means you were playing 10/20, now you're playing 15/30.
Full kill means you were playing 10/20, now you're playing 20/40.
I think you can figure out what a 1/3 kill means.


Kill pots work different ways based on the game and the stakes. It is more common to see the "win two pots in a row = kill it" in LHE. However, in omaha, it is often any scooped pot over X is a kill. Kills are always casino dependent. There is no set rule or custom.

Your casino has $0.33 chips?

3/6 1/3 kill = 4/8

10/20 1/3 Kill = 13.33/26.66

^^ This.

Whenever I've played limit O/8 with a kill, the kill went on whenever the pot is scooped and exceeds 5 big bets (e.g., $100 in $10/$20). The 2-pots-in-a-row criterion is more common in LHE.

Another variation I've seen is when the killer gets to act pre-flop. In many rooms the killer acts in turn, and in others the killer gets last action pre-flop no matter what his/her position.

I've also seen the "half-kill" moniker applied inappropriately. We used to have a $6/$12 LHE game at Majestic Star (Chicago) with a "half-kill", but the kill pots played $10/$20 rather than $9/$18. I have no idea why.

what is the point of a kill?

The way we do it at Seneca Niagara, it basically just stimulates more action without people getting scared away from the higher stakes. Remember, in this room, if a pot gets up to 10 BB's at the "nominal" stakes, then the next one is a 1/2 kill. I'd estimate 25-30% of pots are played as 1/2 kill pots. Often, one kill pot will set off a cascade of future ones since the bets are increased and it's easier to hit the threshhold.

So I basically get to play some 6/12 against people who are at a 4/8 level of play. And anytime I can raise the stakes without raising the quality of the players, I'm all about it.

Plus it adds variety and excitement to see the bigger pots being dragged.

It adds some nice variety to the game and gives some new situations. Normally I'd pitch 87o from the BB but in a kill pot, I only need to add another $2 to complete the $6 bet so why not go for a straight?

So now the board comes J89 and it makes post flop play that much more interesting.

I have played in a $5-$10 kill to $10-$20 at the Foxwoods. The game had a kill pot when the pot went over a $100. The game played hyper aggressive most of the time. The point of the kill pot is to ...generate action. The same reason why 10-20 gets played with red chips, the appearance of action and gambool.

Or so you can post the small blind.

This is why Kills are bad for the game. If you local game is strong with lots of action, you are fine but if like most locations, limit poker is weak, then try not to play with a Kill.

The bad players bust out to quickly and you need the bad players to play as much as possiblee.

How does the kill at the O8 game at the Commerce work? Does that casino use the rule mentioned above where a 10 BB pot doubles the stakes?

So you would normally fold the BB when it comes back to you unraised here??