Poker is a card game, played between two or more players, where each player bets on the strength of his or her hand. The objective is to have the best five-card hand at the end of the game. There are many different versions of the game, but they all share some similarities. One of the most important things to remember when playing poker is that it is a game of skill and strategy, not chance. This means that you need to learn all of the possible strategies and ways to win, including how to read your opponents.

A player may raise his or her bet at any time during play. This is called raising the pot. If a player raises the pot, other players must choose whether to call his or her new bet and continue competing for the prize, or fold and forfeit their stake.

The earliest references to poker in written English are found in J. Hildreth’s Dragoon Campaigns to the Rocky Mountains (1836), and in published reminiscences by Jonathan H. Green and Joe Cowell (1843, 1844). Both publications cite a similar version of the game as Poque, which was also known as Glic and whose likeliest immediate ancestor is the Dutch card game Pochen (16th – 17th centuries).

Earlier vying games with cards include Belle, Flux and Trente-un (French, 17th – 18th centuries), Post and Pair (English, 18th century to present), Brag (English, 19th century), and Bouillotte and its derivatives (17th – 18th centuries, French). These have little or no bearing on modern poker.