The Basics of Poker

A game of poker is a card game in which players bet, discard and then draw cards to form a 5-card hand. The best hand wins the pot. There are many variants of poker. The most common include the royal flush, which includes aces, kings, queens and jacks all of the same suit; four of a kind; straight; and three of a kind. Some games also allow wild cards of any suit to substitute for other cards in the hand.

Each player must place an ante into the pot before dealing two cards face down (hidden from other players). The turn to deal and to bet passes clockwise around the table. After the first betting phase, 3 cards are dealt face up in the center of the table (revealed to all players) and another round of betting takes place.

Some games have a designated dealer who does the shuffling and deals the cards. Alternatively, a player may take turns being the dealer. In either case, there is usually a special chip to designate the dealer for each deal.

The game is played with chips, typically white or light-colored chips worth one unit each. There is generally a large supply of chips for the number of players in the game. Unlike some other card games, players cannot touch each others’ chips. The rules for raising and lowering bets vary from game to game. If a player raises a bet, the player to his left must call the raise or drop out of the pot altogether.