Poker is a card game where players put money into the pot (a pool of bets) before being dealt cards. The player with the best 5-card hand wins the round and collects all the money in the pot. This process continues until one player has all the money in the pot and drops out.

To start a hand, each player puts in a small bet called the ante (the amount varies by game) before being dealt two cards face down. From there, each player can check, call or raise.

A good starting hand is a pair of any kind, three of a kind, four of a kind, straight, flush or a full house. If more than one hand has a pair of the same rank, the highest pair wins. If no pairs are present, the high card breaks ties.

Some variations of poker have a wild card which is used to make a straight or certain other special hands. The bug is also a wild card but only counts as the fifth ace (not to be confused with a joker, which does not count as an ace and only acts as the first wild card in a standard 53-card pack).

In addition to basic betting, poker has several mechanisms by which players can strategically misinform each other about the strength of their cards. For example, players with weak hands can increase the size of their bets to encourage other players to call them, and players with strong hands can raise a lot to scare other players into folding before showdown.