Poker is a card game with millions of fans. It is primarily a game of chance, but with betting, it becomes much more of a game of psychology and skill (not that there wasn’t already a lot of luck).
Before each hand, players put money into the pot, called anteing. Each player is dealt 2 cards. They may then fold, call or raise a bet. When a bet is raised, the player must match it (at least equal to it). If they don’t, they must raise it again. A player can also ‘check’, which means they stay in the pot without betting, provided no one else has raised their bets.
A winning hand consists of the best five-card combination from your own two cards and the community cards. The player that has the best hand wins the pot – all of the chips that have been raised so far.
In addition to the standard 52-card pack, some variant games use extra cards called jokers or wild cards. The cards are ranked in order from high to low: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.
Each player must show their cards during the betting phase of a round, except when they check. The first player to reveal their hands starts the betting, and then each player in turn can either call or raise the previous player’s bet. Unless they have a good hand, most players will eventually fold.