Feel like a noob asking this, but what exectly does 1-1-2 mean (or 2-3-5 etc).

Obv two of these figures are for the small and big blinds, but the third is what...the minimum raise?

Also, what is the purpose of this, vs. just 1/2 or whatever.

Sometimes there are 3 blinds in a cash game. Sometimes the first blind is posted by the button and sometimes it is posted by first position.

in limit games it would mean the bets on different streets i believe (1/3/5 means 1 dollar bet preflop/flop, 3 on turn, 5 on river)

yeah mets sums it up fairly well

Never heard of this structure. But just because I've never heard of it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Some live games have 3 blinds with the button typically posting the additional blind. In which case its shown as 1/1/3 for button/sb/bb. Other times you have two sb's and a bb. so 1/1/3 would be sb/sb/bb.

The reason for this is two fold. Increases action which increases pot size which leads to more rake.

It is no longer this way but when I played at Lucky Chances in California, they had no rake, but instead had a button drop. In a $3-6 limit game, you paid $1 on the SB, $3 on the BB and $3 on the button which was a live call (not sure of terminology here-- you were automatically in and could raise, if wanted) but the money went directly to the house, not the pot. Plus one dollar was dropped into the JACKPOT collection so it was really tough to stay playing these games for any period of time and consistently make money.

At that time, I did not play NL games there but while they had this BUTTON DROP thing in effect, they also spread their lowest NL game calling it a "One-one-two" game for which the buy-in was $100.

After they changed and went to a rake structure for the limit games, they continued having these 1/1/2 NL games. I had heard that the button drop they were doing was discontinued because new California legislation had made it illegal? Not sure about that. Suspect it must have been true to some degree, though, because the change from a button drop to a rake in the $3-6 limit game certainly did help the player and I don't think the casino would have done something like that just from the goodness of their corporate heart! LOL.

I believe the higher stakes limit games continued with a time charge which they had always had but not sure about that, either, since I never got involved at those levels.

From luckychances.com, 'Wagering Limits' (and sorry, I was talking about no limit, or rather spread limit games (Ca)):

$1-$1-$2 Blinds, $4 to open
$2-$3-$5 Blinds, $10 to open
$20-$40 Blinds, $40 to open

So does the button post one of these blinds? Or are there just three blinds after the dealer postion?

Also looks like in the first two examples you cannot limp in, and even the BB has to complete?

Thx!

The first two examples are most likely button/sb/bb and the minimum bet preflop is is 2x the bb. Having the button post a blind encourages her to play. Increasing the bring in just jacks up the pot ensuring the house of a decent rake.

Not sure if you play online but live play at the lower levels, typically 3/6 limit and 1/2 NL are the lowest live, play much looser. In NL if you do a 3-4x bb raise preflop that is typical of online play, you'll still have 5-8 players call. So preflop raises tend to be in the $10-$15 range to thin the field down to 3-5.