Casino Poker Betting Options Explained: Blinds, Antes, Call, Raise And Fold

• POKER BETTING TERMS EXPLAINED
• WHAT DOES 'BETTING' MEAN IN A POKER CONTEXT?
• WHEN TO CALL IN POKER
• WHEN TO RAISE IN POKER
• WHEN TO FOLD IN POKER
• 'CHECKING' EXPLAINED
• BLINDS AND POKER ANTE: WHAT DO THEY MEAN?
• CHIP VALUES EXPLAINED
• EXPLORING POKER AT LOTTOLAND
• RESPONSIBLE PLAY

You're playing at a Irish online casino, the other players and the dealer throw out some jargon at you, then it's your turn, and you have to say whether you want to call, fold or raise. If you don't know what these terms mean, you might be viewed as the fish that everyone else wants to prey on. So in this article, I'll demystify all the important live casino poker terms and explain all the casino poker betting options so that you feel more like a pro when you join a live poker table.

I remember the first time I went to a casino to play poker. I had printed out some articles that I was reading on the train to the card room. I was worried about what the other players might think of me, this complete newbie, and whether I would be able to follow the action. Yet, 12 years later, I call myself a professional poker player and live poker coach.

So let's simplify the jargon and look at the different betting options in poker so that you can have an easier start than I did at the time.

POKER BETTING TERMS EXPLAINED

To understand what the betting options are, we need to look at how poker actually works.

At its core, poker is a very simple game, whether you play no-limit hold'em, pot-limit Omaha, 7-card stud or any of the other variants. Put simply, you have a hand with a certain strength. If you think it could be better than the hands your opponents hold, then you want to put more money into the pot. If you think that your hand is quite bad, you want to cut your losses and get out of the hand fast. If it's somewhere in the middle, you're happy to put some money in there, but you want to be cautious about it.

All the poker terminology surrounding betting, raising, checking, calling, and folding basically revolves around this concept.

So let's look at each of them individually.

WHAT DOES 'BETTING' MEAN IN A POKER CONTEXT?

The easiest one to understand and the most obvious one is the term betting. Whenever you think you have a strong hand, or when you want to pretend to have one (which is called bluffing), then you want to bet. This simply means that you announce an amount. If you play a no-limit game like Texas Hold'em, you can choose that amount completely freely. In so-called limit games, there is an upper limit of what you can bet.

WHEN TO CALL IN POKER

Following your bet, your opponent (or several opponents) now has a choice to make. They have three options. If they think that their hand is good enough to continue, they can match your bet. Poker players say "call" to this option.

WHEN TO RAISE IN POKER

If your opponent/opponents think that their hand is really strong, and probably stronger than yours, they can put in even more money. For example, if you bet €50, they can now charge €200. This is called a "raise" in poker. So, a bet is when there is no money to be matched yet, and a raise occurs when someone has already bet and a player decides to literally raise the stakes.

WHEN TO FOLD IN POKER

But then there is a third option in poker: the fold. This is if your opponent doesn't rate their hand very highly and therefore doesn't think that it's worth paying whatever you bet. In this case, they just pass and get out of the hand. This would mean that the player who bet would automatically win the whole pot, assuming that there aren't any other players involved.

And by the way, if an opponent raises your bet, you now have the exact same three options: you can call that raise, you can fold your hand, or you can raise that raise again. For example, you bet €50, your opponent raises to €200, and you come over the top and raise to €500.

One important caveat, though: in casino poker, you can only bet or raise to as much money as you have on the table in chips.

'CHECKING' EXPLAINED

There is also one more important term: the check. So earlier I was saying that you can decide how much you want to bet, but what if your hand doesn't look that strong and you wouldn't want to bet? Well, you don't have to. You can just defer the action to your opponent. This is called "check" or "checking". Whenever no one has bet ahead of you, you have this option.

If you know these four words (betting, raising, folding, and checking) and what they mean, you already know most of the jargon, and you can be confident that you understand the basic rules and etiquette at the table.

Of course, there are tactics involved, however. For example, you might have a very strong hand, but you want to disguise the strength of it, so you only call a bet rather than raising it. This is what makes poker fun, but it's a topic for another day.

BLINDS AND POKER ANTE: WHAT DO THEY MEAN?

There are two more terms that come up a lot and that cause a lot of confusion, even among somewhat experienced players: blinds and antes.

Blinds are one of the most important parts of modern poker. A blind is a certain amount of money that someone has to pay before the cards are even dealt. They have to post that money blind, without seeing their cards, hence the name. These blinds drive the action because now there is already some money to be won before anyone has decided to bet anything.

In most Irish casino cash games, these blinds are not very high, though. Typically, the blind structure is 1/2, which means that one player posts €1 blind and another player posts €2. These are called small blind and big blind.

In tournaments, you will sometimes see blinds of 5,000/10,000 and even more. This doesn't mean that someone posts €10,000 blind, however. In tournament poker, participants play for chips rather than direct cash like in cash games. And those blinds go up every 20 to 60 minutes, depending on the tournament format.

Tournaments have one other interesting quirk. They often use so-called "antes". So, in addition to the blinds, participants have to pay additional money (or chips) into the pot before the hand is dealt. Either every player at the table has to pay such an ante, or just one designated player (usually the one who also has to pay the big blind) will foot the whole ante bill.

CHIP VALUES EXPLAINED

One final distinction is useful for beginners. In cash games, the chips represent their cash value, and players can generally leave the table and cash out. In tournaments, players compete with tournament chips for a share of the prize pool, and the blind levels typically increase as the tournament progresses.

Both variants can be a lot of fun, though, and you now know the basics to join any poker table.

EXPLORING POKER AT LOTTOLAND

If you fancy putting your newfound poker knowledge to the test, there are a range of options to explore at Lottoland. Poker options at Lottoland include online table games which use random number generator mechanics to play games, or, if you fancy a more immersive experience, there's also the live games in our live casino to try your hand at. The live poker options sit alongside live roulette, live dealer blackjack and casino game shows for an authentic casino experience!

RESPONSIBLE PLAY

Whether playing RNG poker or live poker games at Lottoland, it's important to explore Lottoland's Safer Gambling page for guidance and support before playing. Always remember that wins are not guaranteed, and set a budget before playing online.

Play Responsibly, 18+. gambleaware.org