Poker is a gambling game that can be played with up to eight players. Players are dealt five cards in a pack and use them to form a hand. The best hand wins the pot. If there are ties, the highest card will break the tie.

Poker is usually played with a standard pack of 52 cards. However, some variant games will add jokers or other wild cards. This is not the best way to play poker, because you are more likely to get bluffs.

There are four standard categories of poker hands. These include a pair, a flush, a straight, and a higher or lower straight.

Pairs are two cards of equal rank. A pair of aces is the lowest pair. When comparing pairs, the second highest odd card will break ties.

A flush is a set of five cards of the same suit. A pair of kings isn’t very good, but a higher pair will beat it. Similarly, a pair of tens isn’t a great pair, but a higher pair will beat it.

A straight is a sequence of three to five cards that are in the same suit. In a straight, the ace can count high or low.

Fours of a kind (sometimes called quads) is four cards of the same rank. It’s sometimes called a poker in other parts of the world. Unlike a pair, a four of a kind can be broken by the fifth card.