Poker is a card game in which individuals compete for an amount of money or chips contributed by each player (called the pot). Players make bets based on the probability that their hidden cards and the public information revealed by other players’ hidden cards will combine to form the best five-card hand. Unlike most other gambling games, there is no house edge. In a standard game, the best players win a significant fraction of the money in the pot. Professional players are experts at analyzing signals across many channels, including visual and non-visual cues from their opponents. They also build behavioral dossiers on their opponents, and purchase or trade records of other players’ hands, to gain an advantage over them.

The game is played in rounds, with each round involving one or more betting phases. The players ante before being dealt cards, and then the dealer deals each player 2 cards, face down (hidden from other players), and begins the first betting phase of the hand. Players then use the 2 personal cards in their hand, along with 3 community cards that are revealed on the table, to form their best 5-card hand.

Some variations of poker require that the players make forced bets, known as blind bets. These bets happen before the antes, and can replace them or be in addition to them. When it is a player’s turn to place a bet, they can either call, raise or fold. If they check, then the game continues until someone else raises on their turn.