A card game that involves betting and the bluffing of other players to win. It can be played with 2 to 14 players. The object is to win the “pot,” or the total amount of bets placed during one deal. A player can win the pot by showing a superior hand or by making a bet that no other player calls. In some forms of poker, a player may also win the pot by revealing a superior hand while still not showing it; this is called “bluffing.”
In Poker, cards are dealt in rotation around the table and marked with a token known as the dealer button (buck). This determines the order of betting for the current round. The first player to the left of the button acts as the dealer. If a player does not wish to be the dealer, they can pass the button to another player on their left. The dealer deals each hand one at a time to the players in a clockwise direction, starting with the player to the left of the button.
The rules vary widely between different games, but most forms of poker involve two personal cards in a player’s hand and five community cards shared among the players. The most common hand is a straight, which consists of 5 consecutive cards of the same suit. Other common hands include three of a kind, four of a kind, and a full house. In some types of poker, the players agree to establish a fund, or “kitty,” for chips that are not won in the main pot. This kitty is used to pay for new decks of cards and for food or drinks at the table.