Poker is a card game in which players place bets to win a pot of money. Players reveal their cards at “showdown” and the player with the best hand collects the pot. The game can have a high element of chance, but betting allows for strategic misinformation and bluffing. The game also requires a good level of comfort with risk-taking and the ability to weigh up options.

The rules of poker vary between different games and between casinos, but the following basic guidelines are generally observed:

A poker hand consists of five cards. The value of the hand is inversely proportional to its mathematical frequency: the more rare the combination, the higher the hand’s rank. The most common hand is a pair of two distinct cards, followed by three of a kind and then four of a kind. The highest hand is a royal flush, which is a straight and a flush simultaneously.

Some variations of the game require that players put an initial amount of money into the pot before they are dealt their cards, which is called an ante. Alternatively, some games use blind bets in addition to or instead of an ante.

When a player puts all of their chips into the pot, they are said to be all-in. The rules for determining how much a player can raise during each betting round depend on the type of poker being played and whether or not pot limit is in effect.