Poker Rules - Types of Action

When you think about it, the decisions that an average poker player has to make during the course of a hand or even during the course of a few hands are not decisions that are particularly earth-shattering. They actually only have five choices and these are the five choices that are going to be discussed below. Each time the action comes around to them, the player will at most have three of these five choices available to them and of course they will need to choose one of those betting options to continue. These betting options are to call, raise, fold, check or bet.

Click here to visit The Best Online Casino

Call: This is the betting option that the player will use when they wish to match the highest bet that is currently put out on the table. If one player bet $40, then in order to call the player would also have to bet $40. However, if one player bet $40 and another player raised $40 then the player would have to bet $80 if they wanted to execute a call action in that particular hand. Calling is one of the more important betting actions around because you can evaluate yourself as a poker player by how often you call in a particular situation compared to how often you execute another action.

Raise: When a player elects to raise, then they have decided that they want other people to put up more money rather than simply matching the bet that is currently out on the field. The raise option only appears like the call option when there is already a bet out there from another player and depending on the betting structure you have in the game, the raise amount might be different. In limit games the raise is automatically the amount of the bet for that round, whereas in pot limit games it is maximum the size of the pot once the amount to call has been taken into account. In no limit games, it is any amount that you want.

Fold: Folding is the simplest action that a player can take and if you are a tight player that tends to win at poker games, it is also going to be the action that you take the most often. It is simply refusing to put any more money into the pot and instead of continuing with the hand, getting rid of your cards and living to fight another day.

Check: A check is a specialized betting action that is only available to you when no bets have been put out in that particular betting hand. It is basically an election to not put any money out there on your own, but at the same time to keep your hand and see what the other players decide to do. If all the players in the hand check a round, then the next card is dealt without any betting having been done that round.

Bet: Bet is the other option a player gets along with the check option when there are no bets out there. It is basically the same thing as a raise, except the player is raising from nothing rather than raising a bet another player has already made.