Poker is a card game where players wager money on the outcome of a hand. It is played with a standard 52-card deck and can be enjoyed in many variations. In most games, players must ante (put a small amount of money into the pot before being dealt cards) to be in the hand. Players then call or raise each other’s bets, and the person with the highest hand wins the pot. Players may also bluff, betting that they have a good hand when in fact they do not, in order to try to scare other players into folding.
The highest poker hand is the royal flush, which consists of four matching cards of the same rank and five consecutive cards of the same suit. The second highest hand is a straight, followed by three of a kind, two pair, and a high card. A high card is used to break ties in the event that no other hand meets a specific criteria.
While countless poker variants exist, most share certain key features. In most games, each player must ante some amount of money (amount varies by game, our games are typically a nickel) to be in the hand. After the initial antes, there is a round of betting, with the player to the left of the dealer making the first bet. Betting continues clockwise around the table, with players choosing to call, raise, or fold. When a player calls, the other players must either match his bet or fold.