Table Stakes In Poker
"I must have leave to pass."
Coriolanus. Act V., Scene 2d.

By table stakes, or playing table stakes, a person who bets must have the money before him. It prevents any credit. You cannot owe when 'table stakes' are played, nor can you be raised out for more chips or money than you have before you; as far as reducing credit to a minimum, it is useful.

In olden times, when table stakes were played, it was employed as a device to drive out another player. If he had not the chips or money, he left. He had, however, one recourse. He might declare his ability to raise the money. Then the game was closed for the time being, and the hands sealed up for twelve hours. Then if he showed up with the money the game was continued.

The Freeze-Out
?I pray you, pass with your best violence.?
Hamlet. Act V., Scene 2d.

The freeze-out is so called because when it is played all the performers are left out in the cold, with the exception of one. It is a duel at cards. In a certain way it has its advantages, because it limits individual losses. The players each take the same number of chips, and the game closes when one player has won them all. For example, five players each take twenty chips. There are one hundred chips out. The freeze-out is ended when one of the party has the one hundred chips. The game is carried on under all the rules of poker, with, however, this exception, and that is in regard to the limit, for it never should be played without the limit. Say the limit is ten, one player or more is reduced to his last five chips. The player having the bulk of chips cannot then insist on the limit, he, can only bet as many chips as his, adversaries have. The freeze-out is not precisely a social game, because necessarily the players drop out one by one. At the conclusion of the game it is obvious that great caution is necessary. The last chips are carefully nursed. Jack-pots are not generally played in a freeze-out, but this is optional.

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