A card game that combines skill and luck to be successful, Poker can be played as cash or tournament play. While the rules differ between formats, many of the same strategies are employed. Writing about Poker should be engaging for the readers, by sharing personal anecdotes about their experiences at the table and explaining techniques such as bluffing or tells (unconscious habits displayed by players that reveal information about their hands).
A tournament is a competition involving a small number of competitors in a single venue and concentrated into a short time interval. The term may also refer to one or more separate competitions, each involving different subsets of the competitors. This type of competition is common in racket sports and combat sports, many board games and card games, and some forms of competitive debating.
Before the game begins, each player must make a contribution to the pot (representing money for which poker is almost invariably played). This contribution is known as a bet. The first player to make a bet is known as the active player. If a player wants to remain in the pot, he must match or raise the bet of the last active player, or else fold.
The game is played by a group of players around a circular or oval-shaped table. At the start of a session an initial dealer is chosen by dealing a single card from a shuffled pack to each player until a jack appears. The player receiving the jack becomes the initial dealer. The dealer then shuffles the cards and offers them to his opponents for cutting, with any player clockwise from him having the right of cut.