During the course of hand you have four options: raise, call, fold, or check.
You raise to increase the amount of money in the pot, to scare away your opponents from the hand, to bluff, obtain a free card in the next betting round, or to get information on the hands of your opponents.
You call to see more cards, to hide how good your hand is, or to set a trap for the other players.
You fold because you know you will lose the hand, or your hand is not good enough to win.
You check because you are somewhere in-between and you don’t want to stay in the hand without betting, or you want to check-raise (meaning checking and raising in the same round; checking early in a betting round hoping another player will open).
