Poker is a card game in which players place chips (representing money) into a pot, and then act on their cards. The best hand wins the round and the pot of money placed into it. Players may call, raise, or fold their hands. They may also bluff, betting that they have a good hand when they don’t, hoping that other players will call their bet. The game has become a popular pastime for many people and is played in casinos, private homes, and card clubs. It has been referred to as the national card game of the United States, and its rules, strategy, and jargon are part of American culture.

A poker hand consists of five cards. Each card has a rank and a suit. The higher the hand, the more valuable it is. The ranking of the cards is determined by their mathematical frequency, or how often they appear in a deck. The most common poker hands are straights and flushes. A flush consists of 5 consecutive cards of the same suit, and a straight consists of 5 cards that are sequential in rank but from different suits. A three of a kind contains 3 matching cards of one rank, and a pair contains two matching cards of the same rank.

In the game of poker, each player has 2 hidden cards called hole or pocket cards. After a mandatory initial round of betting (called the pre-flop), 3 more cards are dealt face up in the center of the table, called the flop. The flop is community cards, which means that all players can use them to build their own 5-card hand. Another round of betting begins, starting with the player to the left of the big blind.

After each round of betting, the player to the right of the dealer (or “under the gun”) must place in the pot at least the amount of the player’s chip that was raised. A player can also opt to make a maximum bet, or all-in, by placing all of his or her chips into the pot. In this case, he or she forfeits the rights to any side pots. After a player has revealed his or her hand, the winner of any side pots is announced. Then, a new round with antes and blinds begins.