Beginners Guide To Checking, Betting, Folding, Calling and Raising
In poker there are only five different betting actions to remember, depending on whether or not anyone has already made a bet on this round. Let’s start with your options when someone has already placed a bet (known as opening the betting).
If you do not like your hand you can fold, relinquishing your cards and taking no further part in the hand. Any money that you have already contributed to the pot is lost. Once you have folded your hand it is placed in a pile of other discarded hands (known as the muck) by the dealer. Having touched the muck, your hand is now dead. It cannot be retrieved even if you were to realise that your hand had been discarded by accident.
However, let’s assume that you do want to continue in the hand after someone else has bet. In that case you may either call or raise. A call involves matching the amount already bet in order to see the next card (or to see the showdown, if the last card dealt was the river card). However, if you particularly like your hand you may also raise, forcing the original bettor to match your raise if he wants to continue in the hand.
Of course, whenever you raise, the original bettor has the option to reraise, putting the onus back on you to match his bet to stay in the hand. Most cardrooms have a limit on the number of bets and raises allowed. Usually only a bet and three raises (or four raises) are allowed on each round of betting. However, when there are only two players left in the hand some cardrooms allow unlimited bets and raises.
When there has not yet been any betting on this round, you have the option of either betting or checking. If you like your hand (or choose to bluff) and decide to bet out, you simply place your bet in front of you towards the centre of the table. The other players must now at least match your bet if they want to remain in the hand.
If you instead decide to check, you are deferring your betting rights for the time being. Another player may now bet, in which case you may fold your hand, call the bet or raise (the action of first checking and then raising when an opponent bets is known as a check-raise). If no-one bets on that round then the next card is dealt and again the first player has a choice whether to bet or check.
Poker can at times sound a lot more complicated than it really is. As you advance your knowledge and your ability many more factors come in to play in your decision making at the table, but at the heart of it, the basics don’t change regardless of the game you are playing.
At any one time you only ever have three of four options available to you - you may Check, Fold, Call or Bet (Raise).
If there are no bets to you (It is checked to you)
You have the option too :
- Bet : You can put a bet into the pot. Now all the players must call that bet by also putting in the same amount of money, or they can raise your bet (re-raise). If they do not call or raise they must fold.
Check : You can choose not to put in any money into the pot. If no one bets, then the game continues and everyone is still in the hand. If someone else bets, then you will have another decision to make.
Fold : You can choose to fold your hand at any time although as it is not costing you anything to continue playing at this stage, this is not recomended.
If there is a bet to you
You have the option too :
- Fold : You don’t put in any more money, but you are out of the hand and cannot win any money. Any money you have put into the pot up to this point is lost.
Call : You put in money equal to the amount bet so far. You can stay in the hand. Play continues and the next card is dealt, unless someone else raises. If there are no more cards, such as when you have called a bet on the river in texas hold’em, then there is a “showdown”.
Raise : You put more money into the pot equal to the amount bet so far, plus your raise. The amount of your raise will vary depending on whether you are playing limit, pot-limit or no-limit. Now, all the other players must call your raise or fold. They may also reraise you.
Showdown
If there is more than one player left after all the cards have been dealt, and everyone has called on the last round of betting after that card is dealt, then those players showdown their hands. Whoever is holding the best poker hand wins all the money in the pot. If there is a tie, then all tying hands split the pot in equal amounts.
Win by default
If everyone except one player folds, then that player gets all the money in the pot. He does not have to show his hand to the other players.
Poker Betting Techniques
Now let’s look and how those combinations work in practice and how we can form a strategy to use two of these actions to outplay our opponents and either maximise our winnings or minimise our losses.
The Re-Raise
Someone else raises you, but you feel that you have a better hand, and you want to make your opponent pay to stay in the hand. Then you can reraise him and force him to put in another bet to stay in. This is a very effective tactic and an “aggressive” move, just be sure you really do have the best hand or you think you can make your opponent fold in a later round of betting.
The Check-Raise
You hold a strong hand and you want your opponent to put money in the pot by feigning weakness in your hand. So you check, your opponent bets, and you now re-raise him. Now if he calls, and if your hand is as good as you think it is, you just won more from him than you otherwise would. Of course he may chose to fold outright at this stage in which case you win the hand without a showdown. Check-raising is a powerful tool, but it can be dangerous, because your opponent might also check behind you. You have effectively given your opponent a free card or if you have checked the river, you have a showdown you may have otherwise avoided.
The Check-Call
If you have a decent hand, but you think there is a good chance your opponent might have a better one, you may wish to avoid a raise. In this case, you can check-and-call which entails checking your hand and then calling your opponents bet. This is an effective way too play a draw or to keep a pot small when playing limit hold’em but is strongly not advised in no-limit games. You could find yourself in an unenviable position of having to call a very large bet or folding.
