Poker is a card game played between a group of players. Each player puts a number of chips into the pot before betting. The player with the best hand wins the round. During a betting interval, each player may place additional chips into the pot if they want to increase their bet. This is called raising, and the other players can choose whether to call the raised bet or fold. Players can also bluff, betting that they have a good hand when in fact they do not.
The cards are dealt from a standard 52-card deck. The turn to deal each hand passes clockwise around the table, marked by a token called a dealer button or buck. In casinos, a real dealer handles the cards for each hand. Some Poker games require players to put a mandatory blind bet into the pot before they are dealt their cards. These bets are usually equal to the amount of money that was bet during the last betting interval, and they happen before the cards are dealt.
Once each player has 2 hole cards, there is a round of betting (called the flop). Then 3 more community cards are dealt face up on the board (“The Turn”). There is another round of betting, starting with the player to the left of the dealer.
The value of a Poker hand is in inverse proportion to its mathematical frequency: A pair contains two matching cards of the same rank; a three of a kind consists of three cards of the same rank; a straight consists of five cards of consecutive ranks; and a full house consists of three cards of one rank plus two cards of another rank. The higher the hand, the more it is worth.
