Poker is a game of cards where players are forced to put in a bet, called an ante or blind, before they are dealt cards. Each player then has the opportunity to fold their hand or raise on subsequent betting rounds until one player has a high-ranking poker hand. The pot then goes to that player.
Each round is a little different, depending on the rules of the game you are playing. For example, some games allow players to throw away some of their cards and draw new ones (this is known as a “flop”). If you have pocket kings but an ace comes on the flop it’s probably time to fold!
Some of the best poker players in the world use a concept called expected value. This is a measure of how much money you can expect to make, divorced from the actual result of the event (such as a bad beat).
In poker and in life you need to be better than half of your table if you want to have a positive win rate. You can do this by putting yourself in positions where your chance of winning is largest. To do this you need to work out your opponent’s range of hands – in other words, what combinations they could have. This is not easy and good players often learn to read other people’s behavior, not by looking for subtle physical poker tells but by noticing patterns.