Poker is a card game where players bet based on the cards they hold. The objective is to have the highest-ranking hand. The highest-ranking hand wins the pot, which is the aggregate of all bets made in a single deal.

Several different variants of poker are played, each with its own rules and strategies. The most common are Draw Poker and Stud Poker.

Each player starts the game with a fixed amount of chips (usually a number determined by the rule of the specific variant). The first round is dealt, and the bets are gathered into a central pot.

Next, each player makes a bet, usually an ante or blind bet, to make their total contribution to the pot at least as much as the amount of money previously placed in the pot by the player before them. A player may raise, or increase their bet.

Once all players have bet, each player is dealt another card, and a new betting round begins. Each betting round has its own betting intervals, according to the specific poker variant.

The best poker players are very good at assessing their opponents’ hands and ranges. They do this by evaluating a wide range of possible hands that their opponents could have and then working out how likely they are to have one of these hands beat them.