Poker is a card game played with chips that represent money. Players place these chips into a pot when they make a bet, either to call the bet made by the player before them or to raise it. The outcome of any given hand largely involves chance, but the actions of the players are based on probability, psychology and game theory.

The basic objective of the game is to extract as much value as possible from winning hands while minimising losses from losing ones – this is known as MinMax. The key to this is understanding the strength of your opponents’ hands and how you can exploit them.

A big part of this is bluffing, but it’s important to use this skill sparingly and with great care. If you bluff too often, your opponent will be able to pick up on your patterns and adjust accordingly.

Another aspect is position. Whenever possible, play in position versus your opponents as this will give you more information about the strength of their hands. This will allow you to make more informed decisions and maximise your chances of winning.

One of the biggest mistakes is playing too safe – this can lead to missing out on opportunities where a moderate amount of risk could yield a large reward. Also, playing it safe can make your opponents think that you are weak and they will bluff more aggressively against you. The other mistake is hope – this can cause you to call large bets when you don’t have the best hand, hoping that the turn or river will improve your hand.