Poker is a card game played between a group of players with the object to win a pot, which is the aggregate amount of bets made on one deal. Bets are placed into the pot voluntarily by players who either believe that their bet has positive expected value or who are trying to bluff other players for various strategic reasons. While the outcome of any particular hand does involve some element of chance, over time the skill of the players will dominate.
Players are seated around a table and buy chips in order to participate in the game. The most common chip is the white chip, worth one ante or bet; a blue chip is worth five whites, and so on. At the start of each round, each player places their chips into the pot. The player with the best 5 poker hand wins the pot.
After everyone has two cards, the dealer deals three more cards face up on the table that any player can use (these are called the flop). Once all players have a look at their cards they place bets again. If a player thinks their hand is good they say hit. If they don’t like their hand’s value, they can stay and the dealer will give them another card.
It’s important to play the best possible hand. Many poker books tell you to only play the highest hands, such as a pair of aces, kings, queens, or tens, and high suited cards. However, this approach is boring and will not make you very much money.