Poker is a card game where players make bets against each other and the dealer. It is played with chips that have different values, and each player must buy in for a specific amount of money. Depending on the rules of your game, you may also be required to place an initial amount of money into the pot before the cards are dealt. This is known as a forced bet, and it can come in the form of an ante, a blind, or a bring-in.
After the cards are dealt, each player has 7 cards to make a best 5-card hand. They can use their two personal cards, and the 5 community cards revealed on the table. Each player must put at least the same amount of chips into the pot as the player to their left, or they can choose to raise the bet by putting in more than double that amount (raise). They can also choose to fold their cards and not play them, which ends the betting for that round.
When a player has a good poker hand, they win the pot. A good poker hand can be made up of a pair, three of a kind, straight, or flush. A full house contains 3 matching cards of one rank, and 2 matching cards of another rank. A flush consists of five consecutive cards from the same suit. A three-of-a-kind is two cards of the same rank, and a pair is two matching cards.