Poker is a card game in which players wager against one another by placing chips into the pot. It is a game of chance but requires skill to play well. The aim of the game is to extract the most value from your winning hands and minimise losses from your losing hands. This is called MinMax (Minimum Losses – Maximum Wins).

A poker hand consists of five cards. Each card has a rank according to its mathematical frequency. A high card is the highest, a pair is two matching cards, and a flush is three consecutive cards of the same suit. A player may also bluff by betting that they have a good hand, hoping that other players will call their bet and reveal their own poor cards.

Before the deal, a player must place a forced bet into the pot, usually equal to the amount placed by the player to their left. The dealer then shuffles and deals each player 2 hole cards. A round of betting then begins, and continues with each new card dealt until everyone has 5 cards in their hand.

The final betting phase occurs when all players reveal their hands. The player with the best hand wins the pot. Players who do not have a winning hand may fold or make an all-in bet by putting all of their remaining chips into the pot. The all-in bet must be raised by an amount equal to or higher than the raise in preceding betting intervals.