Poker is a card game played by two or more players. Each player puts up a amount of money, called a buy-in, into the pot before dealing themselves cards. A player may raise, call, or fold his hand. While a large portion of the outcome of any particular hand depends on chance, poker is a game that can be won by using skill and psychology.

The game’s rules differ from one variant to the next, but most include forced bets, a maximum number of betting rounds, and a pot in which bets are placed. In most games, players are dealt a complete set of five cards, but some games deal extra cards in a predetermined pattern (such as three face-down and four face-up rounds, known as streets) or use more than five cards in the hand.

During a betting round, each player can choose to check if their hand is strong enough to win, call if they want to match the bet made by the previous player, or raise if they think they have the best possible hand. Players can also choose to pass if they do not have a good enough hand to continue the game.

The higher the poker hand, the more money it is worth. Some hands are more valuable than others, and the values of these hands are determined by their odds (probability). When two identical poker hands are tied, the tie is broken by the highest unmatched cards or secondary pairs.