Poker is a card game in which players place bets to win money from the other players. It is a fast-paced game with betting going around the table in rotation from player to player. Players can choose to call, raise, or fold.
The goal of the game is to have the best 5-card poker hand at a given time. The value of a poker hand is in inverse proportion to its mathematical frequency; the more rare the combination of cards, the higher the rank of the hand. Players can use this information to bluff, hoping that other players will call their bets despite the fact that they do not have a strong hand.
Each player starts the game by placing a bet into the pot. Depending on the variation of poker, there may be one or more blind bets that happen before each player is dealt their two cards. After this first betting phase, 3 additional cards are dealt face-up on the center of the table (revealed to all players). These three cards are called the flop and are used by each player to make their final 5-card hand.
After the flop, players reveal their hands and the player with the best 5-card hand wins all of the money in the pot. Often times, players will tie with each other and share the pot. This is known as a split pot. A player can also “drop” (fold) their hand if they do not have enough chips to call.