Poker is a card game in which players wager money into a central pot based on the strength of their hand. The game involves a considerable amount of skill and can involve bluffing, as well as strategic betting on the basis of expected value. The game has many variants, and the rules vary from one variation to another. This article describes the basic principles of the game, including the ante, blind bets, how to deal cards, and rules for bluffing and raising bets.

Each player starts by making forced bets, called the ante and the blind bet. These are placed into a “pot” and collected by the dealer before any cards are dealt. The dealer then shuffles the deck and deals two cards to each player, starting with the person to his or her right. Then, the player can choose to hit (stay) or double up.

In the subsequent betting rounds, players may decide to call, raise or fold their cards. A raised bet means the player is putting in more money than the previous bet. The player with the highest hand wins the pot.

Each poker hand consists of five cards. Each has a rank, which is in inverse proportion to its mathematical frequency. The higher the rank, the better the poker hand. For example, a full house consists of three matching cards of one rank and two matching cards of another, while a straight contains 5 consecutive cards of different ranks, but the same suit.