Poker is a card game where players place bets into the middle of the table and then play cards to make a hand. The highest hand wins the pot. The game has many variants, but the most popular are Texas Hold’em and Omaha Hi/Lo.
Each player starts the hand by making a forced bet, usually an ante or blind bet. The dealer shuffles the deck, and then deals each player one card at a time. Cards may be dealt face-up or face-down, depending on the game being played. After each round, the players’ hands develop in some way, usually by drawing additional cards or replacing cards that have already been dealt. At the end of each betting round, all bets are gathered into a central pot.
Saying “call” means that you want to match the last person’s bet or raise it. If you say “raise,” the other players will be able to decide whether to call your new bet or fold.
The name ’poker’ likely stems from the fact that it is a gambling game, and the word ‘bet’ probably derives from the Dutch verb ’beten,’ which means to wager or gamble. Early vying games like Poque, Flux and Trente-un (French, 17th – 18th centuries), Brag (18th century to present) and Bouillotte (late 18th – 19th centuries, French and American) all have similar roots.
The highest natural poker hand is the Royal Flush, which contains four matching cards of the same rank. A flush is five consecutive cards of the same suit, such as 5-4-3-2-1. Three of a kind is three cards of the same rank, and two pair is two matching cards of different ranks plus another unmatched card.