Poker is a card game in which players place chips (representing money) into a pot. The player with the highest ranked hand of cards wins the pot. The cards are dealt in rounds and betting occurs between each round. A player may choose to bet, putting chips into the pot that their opponents must match or call, or fold, forfeiting their hand.
Each player begins the game by buying in for a certain amount of chips. These are called forced bets, which come in three forms: the ante, the blind, and the bring-in. In addition, each player has a choice to bet during the course of a hand by raising the previous player’s raise, increasing their contribution to the pot.
In between the dealing of each hand there are one or more betting intervals, depending on the specific poker variant. The player to the left of the dealer makes the first bet, and each player must place in the pot the number of chips equal to or at least the total contribution of the player before him.
A key to improving your poker play is learning to read other players. While some of this comes from subtle physical poker tells, much of it is simply reading patterns in other players’ behavior. If you know that an opponent rarely calls your bets it is reasonable to assume that he is holding weak hands. Likewise, an opponent who bets often and has a solid showdown hand is likely to win the pot.
