Poker is a card game in which players place bets to win a pot. A player with the best 5-card hand wins the pot, which is made up of all the bets placed during one round of play. If there is a tie among the best hands, the players share the pot equally. A player may also choose to drop out of the game by placing all of his or her remaining chips into a side pot and leaving the main pot uncontested.
Players must have a certain number of poker chips to participate in the game. Each chip has a value based on its color: a white chip is worth the minimum ante or bet; a red chip is worth five whites, and so on. At the start of each deal, players must place their chips into the pot to be eligible to play.
During the first betting phase, each player is dealt two cards that are hidden from the other players (called their hole or pocket). Then 3 cards are revealed to all players in the center of the table. These are called the flop. Then a second betting phase begins, and if a player is holding the best hand, he or she wins the pot.
Aside from the element of chance, poker requires a lot of skill and psychology. It is possible to learn a good strategy to maximize your winnings by extracting value from your stronger hands and minimising losses when you have weaker ones, which is called minmaxing.