Playing for Table Stakes
When you play poker in a brick and mortar casino, it is considered standard practice to play poker for table stakes. Playing for table stakes essentially limits the amount of money you can lose in a single game. It also helps to keep the game friendly by limiting the amount of money in play. As a component of this rule, it also means that money cannot be removed from the table during play. Removing any funds from the table while you are still playing is called going south. This is considered cheating and casino management will take severe action against anyone who goes south. Table stakes are part of the brick and mortar casino world, so you need to master the idea before you sit down at a poker table.
In the most basic terms, table stakes are the amount of money that you originally placed on the table at the beginning of the hand. You cannot bet more than you originally had. This means that no matter how good your hand is, if you did not have the funds at the beginning of the hand, you cannot place a large bet.
In order to keep the game exciting, players are allowed to add funds between hands. This is not considered a violation of the table stake because it is not in the middle of the hand. In tournament play, the process of adding more funds between hands is sometimes called a rebuy or an addon.
