Poker is a card game in which players place chips into a pot representing money and compete to make the best hand. During one or more betting rounds, the player with the highest hand wins the pot. Although a significant amount of luck is involved, most long-run expectations of the game are determined by strategic decisions made on the basis of probability, psychology and game theory.

Typically, a game begins with the first player putting in one or more chips into the pot. Each subsequent player must either call this bet, raise it or drop out of the competition. Players can also choose to bluff, hoping to fool the other players into thinking they have a good hand when they do not.

The cards in a standard pack of 52 are ranked from high to low (ace, king, queen, jack). The game may specify that certain cards are wild (dueces or one-eyed jacks) or that jokers can take any suit.

The first player to the left of the dealer puts in a blind bet, or ante. He then receives a number of cards, called hole cards which are hidden from the other players. The cards are dealt one at a time, face up, until a jack appears. This card is the first to be revealed. If no one has a pair or better, the highest card breaks ties.