Poker is a card game in which players bet with chips that represent money. The goal of the game is to have a high-ranked hand – usually consisting of five cards – that will beat the other players’ hands. Players can also bet without having a good hand by pretending that they do have a high-ranked hand; this is called bluffing. The player with the highest-ranked hand wins the pot (all the bets that have been placed).

Depending on the rules of the specific poker variant, one or more players are required to place an initial amount of money into the “pot” before the cards are dealt. This is referred to as making an ante, blind, or bring-in bet.

The game is played from a standard 52-card pack with four suits: spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs. The cards are ranked from high to low: Ace, King, Queen, Jack and 10. Some poker games allow jokers to act as wild cards of any suit.

A big part of the game is reading your opponents’ tells, which are unconscious habits revealing information about their hand strength. This includes facial expressions, body language and gestures. Every player has a tell, and it is important to be aware of your own as well. If you don’t have a strong hand, but think that other players do, say “check” when it is your turn at the beginning of a betting round. This means that you are not placing a bet and will pass the opportunity to open up on your next turn to someone else.