Poker is a card game that requires skill and strategy to win. It involves betting on your own hand, against the hands of other players. The cards are dealt out to each player in a circle, and each player can decide to call a bet or fold his/her hand. The highest hand wins the pot. While the outcome of any particular hand involves considerable chance, the long-run expectations of each player are determined by their actions chosen on the basis of probability, psychology, and game theory.

There are many different variants of the game, but most involve five cards. A standard poker hand consists of one card of each rank and four of the same suit, with the higher cards having greater value. If two or more hands have the same ranking, they are ties and any winnings are split evenly. If there are no wild cards, the highest non-paired hand (such as five aces) is the winner.

The first step is to ante something (the amount varies by game but in our games it’s typically a nickel) and then be dealt your cards. Once your cards are in hand, the next step is to place bets into the middle of the table, called the pot, which will continue until all players call or fold their hands.

You may say “raise” if you want to put more money into the pot and force the other players to match or raise it. You may also say “check” if you don’t want to bet but are still in the hand and wish to see what else people have in their hands.