It’s time to go into the action and make some smart moves like a professional poker player. After becoming familiar with the fundamental poker rules, poker hands, and poker hand rankings, it is time to introduce you to the poker actions or poker moves that a player has to take while playing poker. If you have recently developed poker taste buds, then you must have heard the players talking about placing a bet, calling the bet, raising, checking, and folding. These are some of the actions that a poker player takes on different betting rounds with various poker hands formed by them while playing on the table.
Poker actions are relative to the poker hands you form on the table, your position on the table, and the pot size. Your poker actions depend on all these factors. Any action you take on the table will reflect your gameplay style and strategy. The players with strong hands are likely to play aggressively, whereas a player with weak hands will play passively. Your poker actions determine how well your cards are. Sometimes you may observe that an experienced player with weak hands plays aggressively by making his/her opponents fold. This may be a bluff technique to let your opponents feel pressured and lose confidence in their cards that results in folding their hands.
Incorporating poker actions into your game strategy will boost your chances of winning the pot. Using the right poker action as per the demand of the game scenario is crucial to winning the game. Sometimes, a player may feel degraded in folding his weak hand cards, but this is not the right approach. Folding at times when you are not confident about your poker cards will help you save your money.
Knowing the various poker actions will help you get to the core of this game. Avid poker players understand the importance of poker actions and use them effectively in their game to prolong their poker life. If you are a beginner at poker, then you must learn about the poker actions and when and how to use them in the game constructively. Let’s first go straight to the different poker actions.
Betting in poker means putting an initial amount of money to seed the pot at the beginning of a poker hand in order to stimulate the players to play the game. The minimum betting amount is pre-decided in poker games and every player has to place the minimum bet required to play the game and in case of an insufficient amount, you are left with the option of folding in the game.
To call the bet or calling in poker means to match the amount of the bet already placed by the players before you on the table in order to continue playing the game. In case you do not have sufficient chips to match the bet, you can fold your cards for that particular street.
Checking or check-in poker refers to the poker action where a player chooses not to bet and to pass the turn, only if the players before him/her have not placed any bet.
Raise or raising in poker refers to increasing the value of the bet by adding some amount to the previously placed bet. If a player chooses to take this action, the players after him/her either call, fold or re-raise.
Re-Raise or re-raising in poker is the poker action that a player chooses to take by increasing the amount of the already raised bet for a particular hand. This action is generally considered an aggressive gameplay style.
Folding a hand in poker means not participating further in the hand and discarding your cards for that particular hand. With this action, a player loses all the chances of winning the pot.
In poker, it is important to play strategically with a good knowledge of poker actions and their betting sequence. These poker actions combine to form a player’s poker strategy. Let’s get familiar with these betting sequences.
According to this betting sequence, you first place a bet on a street and then call the bet when your opponents raise the bet on the same street.
This betting sequence makes a player check first and then fold on the same street. A player with weak hands takes this action.
In this betting sequence, a player first bets and then re-raises the bet on a particular betting round. A player with a strong hand can follow this betting sequence.
A check-raise betting sequence refers to a player’s strategy where a player first checks and then raises the bet to trap his/her opponents. This may also be used to bluff other players.
In the check-check betting sequence, the player checks when no bets are placed in a particular street and other players before him/her also check.
In this type of betting sequence, a player bets on the flop round, and turns before checking at the river round.
According to this betting sequence, a player places his/her second bet or first raise followed by the first bet in a sequence.
According to this betting sequence, a player places his/her third bet or first re-raise followed by a raise in a sequence.
Four-Bet refers to the fourth bet or the second re-raise in a sequence.
Five-Bet refers to the fifth bet or the third re-raise in a sequence
If you wish to take your game to the next level, then you surely have to learn about these poker actions that can enhance your chances to win. At Acehigh, you can get every bit of information about the poker game. You can play Texas Holdem and Pot-Limit Omaha at Acehigh, India’s best online poker platform. Simply click on the 'Play Now' Button.