Poker is a card game where players place bets and compete to make the best 5-card hand. It is played with a standard deck of 52 cards (some games add jokers). There are four suits, and the rank of a card depends on its suit. The highest ranking hand wins. The dealer is responsible for shuffling the deck and dealing cards to each player. A player who has the highest poker hand at the end of a round wins all the money in the pot.
Each player is dealt 2 cards face down (hidden from other players) in the first phase of betting, called pre-flop. 3 cards are then dealt face-up in the center of the table (revealed to all players) and become community cards. This second phase of betting is called the flop.
Once the flop has been dealt, each player will decide whether to keep their hand or call a bet from other players. A player who calls a bet must put chips into the pot equal to or greater than the amount of the original bet. A player may also raise a bet, which requires other players to increase their chips into the pot.
Betting is a fundamental aspect of poker strategy. A player must balance the desire to maximize value from their winning hands with the need to minimise losses from losing hands. This concept is known as MinMax, and is a principle that can be applied to other aspects of life.
