Poker is a card game of chance and strategy with millions of fans around the world. To play poker, you compete to form the highest ranking hand using your own two cards and the five community cards dealt. The player with the highest ranked hand wins the “pot” at the end of each betting interval.
To begin the game, each player puts in an amount of money into a pot (called an ante, blinds or bring-in depending on your game rules). Then the cards are dealt. Players may then choose to call the bet of the player to their left, raise that bet or drop out of the game (“fold”).
A high hand contains two distinct pairs of cards and a fifth card. A pair consists of two cards of the same rank, such as two sixes. A flush is 5 cards of consecutive rank in a suit. A straight is 5 cards that skip around in rank but are all from the same suit, such as J-8-5-3-2 of spades. The highest card breaks ties.
During each betting interval, the players place their bets into the pot in turn. You can also call a bet (by calling the same number of chips as the previous player), raise that bet by increasing it or fold. If you fold, you lose the chips that you put into the pot and cannot bet again until the next deal.
