Ratholing
Taking chips off the table in a cash game while you keep playing, which most cardrooms forbid.
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- What it means
- Ratholing, also called going south, means pocketing part of your stack in the middle of a cash game and carrying on with fewer chips.
- How it is calculated
- Most cardrooms forbid it: chips you win stay on the table until you leave the game. A player who leaves and comes back to the same game within a set time usually has to buy back in for at least the amount they left with.
- Worked example
- You buy in for 100bb and run it up to 300bb, then slip 200bb into your pocket and keep playing with 100bb. That is ratholing, and the other players can no longer win the 200bb you took off.
- Why it matters
- It locks up a win at the expense of the players who lost those chips, which is why rooms ban it. Online sites apply the same rule with a minimum buy-in when you return to a table you just left.
See also: Buy-in, Top up, Cash game, Effective stack