Poker is a card game with betting, and involves a fair amount of skill. There are many forms of Poker, and the rules vary slightly depending on the variant being played. However, the basic principles are the same across all forms of poker. Players place chips (representing money, as poker is almost always played for real money) into a pot, and the player who has the highest-ranking Poker hand at the end of the betting takes the entire pot.

Each round of betting (called a “betting interval”) begins when one player, as designated by the rules of the particular Poker variant being played, puts into the pot a number of chips equal to or greater than the bet made by the player to his left. Players may choose to call this bet, raise it, or drop (“fold”). If a player folds, he discards his hand and cannot compete for the pot.

The highest-ranking poker hand is the royal flush, which consists of four cards of the same rank and five cards of the same suit. The second-highest is a straight, which consists of five consecutive cards of the same suit. If no one has either of these hands, the high card breaks the tie. Other common poker hands include a pair, three of a kind, and four of a kind. The lowest-ranking poker hand is two unmatched cards of the same rank.