Poker is a card game in which players place bets (often represented by chips) into a pot. A player may choose to fold his or her hand, call another player’s bet, or raise the amount of their bet. The highest-ranking hand wins the pot. The game is often played in tournaments for large amounts of money.
A number of different variants exist of the game, with anywhere from 2 to 14 players in a single hand. The game’s rules are based on a combination of probability, psychology, and game theory. In some forms, the game involves bluffing other players to gain an advantage. In others, the game is purely skill-based, with chance involved only for certain elements such as whether or not a player will make a flush or straight draw.
Most poker games are played with a standard deck of 52 cards; some use multiple packs or add wild cards (“jokers”). All poker hands must contain five cards and the highest-ranking hand wins. A game may also include rules governing the breaking of ties, such as when two hands have the same rank of a pair or three of a kind.
In most poker games, one or more players are required to place forced bets into the pot each round, known as making an ante or blind bet. The dealer, who is usually a non-player, is responsible for shuffling the cards and dealing them to each player in turn. He or she may be able to impose betting limits on himself, but only after he has dealt each player a full hand of cards.