Poker is a game of chance and skill that involves betting on the outcome of each hand. Players use chips to place bets, which are then counted at the end of the game.
How to Play the Game
Poker uses a standard 52-card deck of cards (some variants use more than one deck or add extra cards, called jokers, to the pack). The cards are ranked from high to low.
Cards are shuffled before each hand and then dealt face up. The dealer, who can be a player or someone who isn’t playing the game at all, deals the cards to the remaining players and shuffles them after each hand.
Several games require a pre-round bet called an ante, which is typically a small amount. This ante encourages all players to keep playing rather than fold their hand.
In most cash games, the players can “fold,” which means that they don’t play this round of the game and won’t have a chance to win the pot, or “check,” which means they match the bet of another player in order to keep the action going.
Ties are broken by the highest card in each hand. The highest possible hand is five of a kind, which beats any three-card flush or straight.
Wild cards are not used in most games; however, some games have deuces, which can be any card in the deck. These cards can be paired with any other card to make the highest possible hand.