Poker is a card game in which each player places an ante wager and then looks at their cards to decide whether they want to place a bet that pits their hand against the dealer’s. Players may also choose to raise their bets if they have a strong hand.
The highest hand wins. There are four suits (spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs) and each suit is ranked high to low. Some games add wild cards, which can take any suit and rank they desire. A player can bluff by pretending to have a high-scoring hand when they don’t, or they can pretend to have a low-scoring hand that will see them through to the end, where their cards trump those of the other players and they win their chips.
A tournament is a competition in which a number of matches are played to determine an overall winner. These are common in sports and games with a limited number of competitors, such as team and racket sports, many card games and board games, and some forms of competitive debating.
During the opening hand, players are feeling each other out, so betting is usually low and there are a few bluffs. But once the flop is revealed, the action rises with bets and checks increasing and key players becoming visible. At this point the story begins to take shape – will the hero win? If so, how will it be done?