Poker is a card game that requires a certain amount of money from each player, called chips. Players put these chips in a common pot (called the “pot”) before dealing cards. The player to the left of the dealer begins betting first and continues to do so until everyone else has folded or made a raise.

The object of the game is to win the pot, which is the total amount of all the players’ bets for that deal. This can be done either by having the highest poker hand or by bluffing. There are many different ways to play poker, and the rules of each variant may vary slightly.

The game can be played with two to 14 players, although the ideal number is 6 to 8 people. Some games require that each player place an initial amount of money into the pot before dealing the cards, which are known as forced bets. These are usually small, but depending on the game rules, they can be as large as the entire pot! There are three types of hands in poker: a straight, a flush, and a full house. A straight is five consecutive cards of the same rank, and a flush is any 5 matching cards from more than one suit. A full house is 3 matching cards of one rank, and 2 matching cards of another rank, with one unmatched card. Finally, a pair is two cards of the same rank and one other card.