Poker is a card game in which players wager on the strength of their hand. The best hand is awarded a large sum of money, known as the pot.
Rules vary by game, but the basic rules of poker are that each player is dealt two cards, called hole cards. These are kept secret from the other players. During the first betting round, each player can choose to “fold,” which means not participating in this round of the game, or “check,” which matches the amount of their opponent’s bet, or “raise,” which adds more cash to the pot.
Players can also “draw,” which allows them to discard one or more of their hole cards and receive new ones. This is done in turn, beginning with the player nearest the dealer’s left. After drawing, there is a betting interval and a showdown in which the hole cards are revealed.
The game is played from a standard deck of cards, which contains 52 cards (some games use multiple packs or include a few cards called jokers). Cards are ranked from high to low according to suit. There are four suits, spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs; no suit is higher than another.
The best hands are usually full houses, flushes and straights, but there are variations in which the best hand is not always the highest hand. These include games with high-low splits and games where the highest hand is not always a royal flush or straight.