Poker is a card game in which players place bets on the outcome of a hand. The most common poker hand is a pair of matching cards. Other common hands include straights, three of a kind, and full houses. The highest poker hand is a royal flush, which contains four consecutive cards of the same rank and suit.
In poker, the goal is to make the best five-card hand using your own two cards and the five community cards. The player with the best hand wins the pot. The game also has a dealer, who is responsible for shuffling the deck and dealing the cards to each player. In some games, the dealer is a non-player, while in others, each player takes turns being the dealer.
Before the cards are dealt, each player must put down a bet, called an ante. This amount is fixed by the rules of the game and is generally equal to the amount that the player to their left raised. Alternatively, players may choose to check, which means that they will not raise their bets.
Some variations of poker require players to make blind bets before they are dealt their cards. These bets can replace the ante, or they can be in addition to it. After the antes are placed, the dealer deals each player two cards face down. These hidden cards are referred to as the hole or pocket. Afterwards, three more cards are revealed in the center of the table and called the flop. Players then bet on the best 5-card hand.