Poker is a card game where players make decisions based on probability, psychology, and game theory. The game is played in rounds with a betting phase after each round. The goal is to win the pot by making the best five-card hand.

A successful poker player must be able to read his opponents. This involves observing their betting patterns and physical movements. For example, nervous gestures may signal bluffing and aggressive bets indicate strength. Similarly, watching an opponent’s eye movement can reveal whether they have a strong hand or are planning to fold.

Despite its reputation as a game of chance, a significant amount of money is only placed into the pot by players who believe that their bet has positive expected value or are trying to bluff other players for various strategic reasons. Furthermore, poker is a game where any single play can only be understood as part of a sequence of adjustments. As such, it is impossible to glean insights from the static snapshot of a single hand.

In poker, players receive two cards each and then must decide whether to fold (leave the game) or call (match a previous player’s bet). A raise is a higher bet than a call, and a player can also check. The game is played by more than one person, and the action passes clockwise around the table. Players reveal their hands after the flop, turn, and river cards. There are 169 different starting hands that can be dealt (ignoring specific suit combinations). A full house contains three matching cards of the same rank. A flush consists of 5 consecutive cards of the same suit.