Poker is a card game in which players place chips (representing money) into a pot before betting on the strength of their cards. It is a card game where the value of a hand depends on its mathematical frequency: the more rare a combination of cards, the higher the ranking of the hand. Players may also choose to bluff, betting that they have a superior hand even when they do not.

Each player starts with two personal cards. A round of betting follows, and the best hand wins the pot. There are usually several betting intervals during each deal, and each time a bet is made by a player the players to his left must either “call” (put in chips equal to or greater than the amount placed into the pot by the previous player) or drop out of the betting (i.e., surrender their right to the pot).

There are many variations of the game. Most are played with a standard 52-card deck, although some use one or both jokers as wild cards. Depending on the variant, there can be rules regarding how the dealer is chosen and whether or not the ante is required. In most cases, a winner is determined by a showdown, in which each player reveals their hands and the best five-card hand wins the pot. If no one has a winning hand, the players who remain must share the money put down as buy-ins at the table.