An action button in poker games is a marker that is like a kill button. This button is what a player invokes to force an extra bet. In a play like the 7-card stud high-low game, an action button is given to the person who wins a scoop pot that is more than a given size. This signifies that in the next scoop pot, the winning player will be asked to post an amount that shows a complete bring-in to make it a full bet. For instance, a stud game that has a given amount of money and twice the original amount as betting limits.
If a $1 bring-in is allowed, the poker player that has the action button has to post twice the $1; after all the poker cards have been dealt. Then the person with the low card still has to pay a $1 bring-in. When betting gets to the player that posted $2, s/he has to leave it to act as the bring-in's raise with the option to further raise. Players that are in between the action button and bring-in may simply call the bring-in. However, they wil already know that the action button will have them raised.