Poker is a card game in which players place chips or cash into the pot to compete for a winning hand. While a good portion of the game is luck, the ability to minimize losses with poor hands and maximize wins with strong ones is the key to skill in Poker. Sociologist Roger Caillois’ four categories of games—Agon (a drive for competition/domination), Alea (surrender to chance/fate), Mimicry (pretending to be something else), and Ilinx (a desire for a feeling of vertigo) can help explain why Poker is popular.
The game requires a standard deck of 52 cards, which are shuffled before each hand and then cut by the dealer or another player. Each player must pay into the pot in order to be eligible to raise a bet. Players can also establish a special fund called a “kitty” to cover costs such as new decks of cards and food. The players may decide to split the kitty equally when the game ends, or they may choose to return their share of the chips that comprised the kitty.
A player who says “call” at the beginning of a hand agrees to match or raise the last raised stake by the previous active player. If he cannot meet the last raiser’s total, he must fold his hand. If he can, he must continue to call the raise or face a showdown.
Professional players use a variety of techniques to improve their chances of winning. For example, they study the behavior of other players by reading forums and observing hands played at the highest stakes. They also rely on software and other resources to supplement their in-person knowledge of other players, including behavioral dossiers and even buying records of previous poker hands.