Poker is a card game played by two or more players with chips. A player can place bets on their cards and on other players’ actions (checking, raising, folding). If a player has the best five-card hand, they win the pot. There are many different variations of the game, and the rules can vary. However, the core principle is that each player acts with incomplete information — they do not know their opponents’ cards or which cards will be dealt next.
Each player is given a set of cards and aims to make the best 5-card “hand” using their own two cards and the five community cards. The aim is to maximise winnings by extracting the most value from your winning hands, and minimise losses by bluffing and making your opponents fold when you have a bad hand. This is known as min-max strategy.
A dealer is responsible for shuffling the deck and dealing the cards to each player. Often this is done by one of the players, but sometimes it is done by a non-player, and a special chip is used to mark who is the dealer.
The earliest references to poker can be traced back to the late 16th century. By the 19th century, it had a large following and was being written about in books. It was not until 2015, however, that computer scientists announced they had developed an algorithm for displaying essentially perfect play in a limited version of poker with only two players and restricted bet sizes.