Poker is a card game that can be played by any number of players. The object is to have the highest hand of cards, and win the pot.
The game is played with a standard deck of cards (which may include jokers). Each player has five cards in their hand and must make the best possible poker hand by using them and the community cards.
Hand Rankings
The best possible hand in poker is a Royal Flush, which is 10 cards of the same suit (Jack-Queen-King-Ace). It is followed by Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, Full House, Flash, Three of a Kind, Two Pair, One Pair and a High Card.
Rules of Play
The players begin the game with a small amount of money in the form of chips. The chips are worth a certain number of dollars, and are used to place bets during the betting rounds.
A player may “check” if they do not wish to continue betting. This is a very common practice in some forms of poker, and allows them to avoid having to use up all their chips at once.
Raise – A player may raise a bet if they feel that their hand is stronger than the original bet. Then all other players must call, or fold.
Call – A new poker player will often choose to call rather than bet, because they are not sure what their hand is. This is a mistake, because bets are much stronger than calls.