Match Lights ( poker )




In a home game, a situation that comes up when a player is light (Short of the complete bet. "He's light by $20." Also called shy.). In some home games, not played for table stakes, when a player does not have enough chips to continue betting in a pot, that player withdraws chips from the pot equal to the amount of the betting beyond his chips, (usually) stacking them neatly in front of him.

These are called lights. (To so withdraw chips is called go light.) At the end of the hand, if the player does not win the pot, he buys enough chips to cover his lights. He then matches his lights, that is, puts the lights into the pot plus an equivalent amount of chips from the ones he has just bought.