Poker is a card game in which players make bets with chips, called “money”, in a bid to win the pot, which is the sum of all the bets made. The game has a long history, and is thought to be an ancestor of other card games such as bridge and backgammon.

In modern times, the game has become very popular and is played by many people, both as a hobby and as a professional sport. It is considered to be a game of skill, and those who play it well are often able to win large amounts of money.

There are several different kinds of poker, with each one requiring certain skills and strategies. The most common variation of the game is straight poker, which uses a standard 52-card deck and is played in a round-robin fashion. This type of poker is generally regarded as being the easiest to learn.

In some cases, a player may choose to place all of his or her remaining chips into the pot, which is known as going all-in. There are usually special rules governing when this can happen and how it works.

In a showdown, the player with the highest poker hand wins the pot. The highest possible poker hand is a royal flush, which consists of four matching cards of the same rank and five consecutive cards of the same suit. The next highest is a straight, followed by a three-card flush and then a pair.