Poker is a card game played over a series of betting rounds, with the person who makes the best hand winning the pot. It has a number of different variants, but most involve being dealt two cards, betting on them, and then turning over your cards at the end. Some games also include an initial forced bet before the cards are dealt, called the ante, blind, or bring-in, which helps create a pot and encourages competition.
The first player to the left of the big blind takes their turn, and can put in chips equal to the big blind (call), raise it (raise), or push their cards face down without putting any money in the pot at all (fold). Players must act in turn and announce what they are doing.
When a player is not sure what their hand is, they can try to guess what the others have by watching their betting patterns. For example, if a player is raising a lot after seeing a flop of A-2-6, they might have a three of a kind.
After everyone has finished betting, the dealer announces which hand is highest and the winner of the round. Often, the winners will agree on some arrangement for sharing the pot, so that even if they didn’t win a great hand, they still got some money. This is a common feature of many poker games and helps to make them less all-or-nothing. It can also be helpful for new players to learn the rules of other poker variants, such as Omaha, Pineapple, Crazy Pineapple, Cincinnati, and Dr. Pepper, before focusing on mastering Straight Poker.