Poker is a card game in which players compete for the pot, or the aggregate sum of all bets placed during a hand. It is a fast-paced game, with players betting frequently and raising their bets when they have a good hand. If a player does not want to bet, they may “check” and wait for the next person’s turn to act.

There are many different forms of poker, but most have the same basic rules. The game can be played by two to 14 people, but is most often played with 6 or 8 players. Each player has a stack of chips, and the aim is to win the pot by having the highest-ranking poker hand. The game can be played for cash or for play money.

A dealer, or button, is chosen to shuffle and deal the cards. In some games, a non-player is given dealer responsibilities for the entire game; in others, the dealer position rotates after each round. The player to the left of the button must place a small blind bet (or post) before any cards are dealt.

The most important aspect of poker is being able to read your opponents. While it is easy to develop a general ability to read people, poker-specific tells involve watching the way a player holds their cards and their body movements. Those tells can reveal information about their strength of their hands or their confidence in a particular bet, and they can be the difference between winning and losing.