Poker is a card game where players bet into a central pot. The player with the best 5-card hand wins all the money in the pot. Players must ante a small amount of money (the exact amount varies by game). Some games also require players to make blind bets, in addition to or instead of the ante.
Players then take turns raising or checking. If a player raises, they must continue to do so until another person opens betting or everyone checks. Alternatively, they can say “I call” to match the last raise and then place their chips or cash into the pot.
After the flop, each player must choose whether to discard their current cards and draw 1 to 3 new ones. This happens during or after the betting round, and it is a key decision in poker. Depending on the rules of your game, you may be able to exchange these replacement cards with the community cards on the table in order to make a better hand.
After the turn, there is a final betting round, and then the remaining cards are revealed in a showdown. This is where players reveal their hands and the player with the highest 5-card hand wins all the bets that were made in each betting round. In this way, poker combines the twin elements of chance and skill to create a game that is very complex, yet extremely fun to play.