Poker is a card game of skill, strategy, and chance in which players gamble with chips on the outcome determined by the cards randomly distributed to them. It is a family of games that evolved from a three-card game called brag, which was popular around the time of the American Revolution. The game gained its anglicized name when it spread northward along the Mississippi and westward with the frontier, and it adopted the draw, allowing players to improve a promising hand.
Each player begins with 2 cards that are hidden from the rest of the table, known as his hole or pocket. After a betting phase (the first betting interval) has passed, 3 cards are dealt face up on the center of the table, called the flop. These are community cards that all players use to make their best 5-card hand.
Players must then take turns revealing their hands. The player with the best hand wins the pot. Players may call, check, raise, or fold. Some players put all of their remaining chips into the pot, a move known as going all-in.
In most poker games, a player cannot win more than the amount he has staked (amount of money placed into the pot) unless he has a winning hand. This is because poker is a game of equalization, and each player must bet enough to equal the total staked by the last player before him. This principle is known as the Rule of Four.