Poker is a game in which each player has five cards and the goal is to have the best hand. There are several variations of this game, but the basic rules are the same.

Players are dealt a set of cards face down. They can discard up to three and take new cards from the deck. After betting, each player must show their cards and the player with the highest hand wins.

The basic hands of poker are: a full house, a flush, a straight, and a pair. A full house is made up of 3 matching cards of one rank and 2 matching cards of another rank. A flush is made up of any 5 cards from the same suit. A straight is a series of 5 consecutive cards from any suit.

A pair is a pair of two cards of the same rank, plus an unmatched card. It is also called a high card. The highest card breaks ties when there are more than one high hand.

A good poker player knows how to read other players and learns how to use that information to their advantage. It takes some practice, but it’s a skill that can be learned and improved over time. You can develop your reading skills by observing your opponents’ actions, body language, and how they handle their chips and cards.