Poker is a card game that has millions of fans and is played in a wide variety of ways. It can be a very social and fun game for groups of friends or a competitive and strategic game for two players. It is also a good way to practice the art of bluffing. It is not easy to master the rules of poker, but you can learn from experienced players or find online guides that will teach you how to play poker.

The object of poker is to win the “pot,” or total of all bets in any given deal. Each player puts chips into the pot in turn. A player may choose to call a bet, raise it, or drop (fold). The betting interval ends when all bets have been equalized – that is, when each player has either put in the same amount as his predecessors or has dropped.

Each player is dealt two cards and five community cards are revealed on the table (“the flop”). Players aim to make the best 5 card hand from their own two cards and the five community cards. The winning hand is the one that wins the pot.

There are many different poker variants, with the most popular being Texas Hold’em and Omaha. Other forms of poker include stud, lowball and Pineapple poker. The cards used in poker are usually from a standard 53-card pack plus the joker, and some games consider the joker to be wild.