Poker is a card game played with a small group of people around a table. Each player has their own stack of chips and they bet on each hand, called a pot, until one person has all the money or everyone folds. A player can check, meaning they don’t want to bet, or raise (bet a higher amount than a previous player).

There are a few variants of poker but most involve the use of a standard 52-card deck. Some games may add wild cards or other rules specific to the game. Each poker hand must contain five cards, the highest winning hand is the one with the best rank and suit combination.

A poker hand must contain at least three cards of the same rank and two unmatched cards. Other combinations include a full house, which contains three matching cards of the same rank and two matching cards of another rank; a straight, which skips ranks but are all from the same suit; or a flush, which includes five consecutive cards of the same rank.

Players reveal their hands in turn, clockwise around the table, and bet on each one. When someone’s hand is the best, they win all the money in the pot. If no one has the best hand, then there is a draw and the pot is shared among the players who have good hands. Sometimes there is a tie and a second round of betting occurs.