Poker is one of the world’s most popular card games. The game is played with two to eight players and is a game of betting, bluffing, and skill. Poker is considered a “mind sport,” which means it requires strategic thinking to succeed.

When a player makes a bet, the other players can either “call” the bet (put in the same amount of chips as the original bet) or raise it. To raise, a player must say “I raise,” followed by the amount of money they want to put into the pot. A player may also fold, which is putting no chips into the pot and discarding their hand.

In most cases, the dealer will shuffle the deck and deal each player cards. After each round of betting, the button (or position) will pass clockwise to the next player to the left. Some poker games require players to make forced bets before they are dealt cards, called an ante or blind bet.

The highest-ranking poker hands are a straight flush and four of a kind. A straight flush contains five consecutive cards of the same suit, while a four of a kind is made up of four cards of the same rank and two unmatched cards. Ties are broken by the highest unmatched cards or secondary pairs (in a full house). The game of Poker has a rich history of bluffing and deception, dating back to the 16th century with a German bluffing game called Pochen and then into a French game called poque.