Check

A check is a move where you neither bet nor fold but pass the action on. It is possible only while nobody has bet in this round. If everyone checks, the next card comes for free. If someone bets after your check, the action comes back to you and you choose again.

Beginners read a check as weakness, and it costs them. Checking a strong hand is a routine move when the right to bet belongs to the opponent: he raised before the flop, let him bet. And the other way round, a check by the player who raised before the flop is its own story: he is declining the bet everyone expects from him, and that deserves the same scrutiny as a bet.

An example from session 8

6♦6♥ on a flop of 6♠ 2♠ 5♥, three sixes, and not one combination in his range beats me. He re-raised before the flop, the bet is his to make, and I do not take it from him: I check, he bets $6, I raise to $18.75. Turn: check again, his bet again, $16.83, and my all-in. Every check of mine turned his move into my money.

The same in business

A check is a pause that makes the other side move. In negotiation it is worth more than any argument: whoever breaks the silence first has named the price. A strong position rarely needs to be announced; it needs to be tested.

The whole hand is in session 8: “A move out of turn says something about you that you did not mean to say”.

The other terms are in the glossary.