For beginners, perhaps the most baffling aspect of Texas Hold’em is
the betting round. When you’re new to the game there may not appear
to be any rhyme nor reason to the order in which betting takes place.
In fact, betting in Texas Hold’em is quite simple and perfectly logical.
Betting rounds are based on the premise that, if a player wants to remain
in the action, he or she must pay the same amount into the pot as everybody
else.
During the course of a betting round, the following options may be
available to a player:
- Raise
- Mrs B is holding a pair of aces. When Mr A bets £3, Mrs B
might decide, for example, to raise the bet to £10. - Call
- Let’s imagine that Mrs B didn’t have those aces! Instead she may
wish to simply equal the bet of £3 in the hope that her hand
might improve on the next card. If she equals the bet, but does not
raise, she has “called”. - Fold
- Now let’s imagine that Mrs B had an awful hand! If Mr A bet £3,
Mrs B has a decision to make. She can either “call” the
bet of £3 (in order to continue) or she can drop out of this
hand by “folding” her cards. If she folds, her cards are
normally discarded face down. - Check
- Sometimes nobody wants to bet. Let’s say that Mr A has a poor hand
after the flop. If nobody has placed a bet in this round, Mr A can
“check”. He is effectively declaring that he wants to stay
in the hand without making a bet. Because there hasn’t been a bet
in this round yet, he has nothing to “call”.