Poker is a card game played between 2 or more people with cards. It has many forms and is usually a betting game where the objective is to have the highest-ranking hand at the end of the round. There are rules for who can make a bet, how much and when, which depend on the particular poker variant being played. The players have “chips” (money) which they place into the pot to bet with. The player who has the best poker hand wins all the chips in the pot.
Each player is dealt two cards which are hidden from other players (“hole” cards). These are used in conjunction with five community cards to make a poker hand. A poker hand is made up of any combination of the following five:
A pair is two matching cards of one rank. Three of a kind is 3 matching cards of one rank. A flush is 5 cards that skip around in rank but are from the same suit. A straight is five consecutive cards in a row. A full house is 3 matching cards of one rank and 2 matching cards of another rank.
There is a betting interval at the start of each new hand, starting with the player to the left of the dealer. Players may Fold, Call or Raise. If a player raises the stake, betting continues until all other players have either called or folded. The dealer changes after each hand and the person to his or her right cuts the deck after it has been shuffled.