These are buttons that you can use to select the action you want to make before it’s your turn to bet. So you may have a bad starting hand and decide that you are going to fold no matter what. If you click the ‘fold’ auto-action button, when it becomes your turn your hand will be automatically folded. This speeds up the game and also enables you to multi task whilst playing poker. You may want to play more than one table or do something else as you play – these buttons are useful for that.
Many articles say to steer clear of these buttons but I disagree with that. My advice is to be careful how often you use them and vary your usage. They are very handy for speeding the game up, and letting you brew a cup of tea, but they can give off tells to players looking for them and put you at a disadvantage if you are predictable. Players looking for signs can watch the use of auto-action buttons to gauge the betting patterns of a player. Ensure that you mix it up a bit and not be too obvious. Then you can use them as part of your game as they can be useful for bluffing and fooling opponents into thinking you have a certain strategy.
There are times when you decide to fold no matter what (2 7 when you’re first to act for example) so a quick fold using the auto button is fine. However if you always use the ‘bet’ or ‘raise’ auto-action button when you have a good hand people will notice this and will fold to you if they don’t have a monster hand. This might mean you missing out on a good pot when you hold a strong hand.
Remember, don’t be predictable with your use of these buttons.
They can be used to your advantage at times. You can use them as part of your bluff strategy for instance. Continuing the previous example – you could use the ‘bet’ or ‘raise’ auto-action buttons to always bet when you have a good hand. This will convince your opponents that you only bet when holding a good starting hand – you can then use this to bluff with a lesser hand later on. You could also use the ‘check’ auto-action button to always check when you have a marginal hand and then use this to lure an opponent in later when you get a good hand.
There are lots of ways you can use these buttons to your advantage – think about it as part of your game plan and don’t be predictable.