What is Table Stakes?

Table stakes is the rule that a player may only wager the chips already in front of them when a hand begins. Money in a pocket, a wallet or another account is not in play, you cannot add to your stack in the middle of a hand, and you cannot remove chips from the table while seated in the game. If a bet is larger than your remaining stack, you call for the amount you have and go all in; the surplus from other players forms a side pot you cannot win. The rule protects everyone from being pushed off a hand purely by an opponent's deeper pockets, and it is standard in virtually every cardroom and online poker room. Rebuying between hands is allowed; reaching for more mid-hand, sometimes called playing behind, is not.