Poker is a card game with a high element of risk and chance. There are dozens of different variants, but the basic rules remain the same: players put chips into a pot before they receive cards, and then choose to call, raise, or fold. In the end, only one player wins the pot, which is the sum of all the bets placed during a hand.
A poker hand consists of five cards. The value of a hand is in inverse proportion to its mathematical frequency, meaning that the more rare a combination of cards is, the higher it ranks. Players may bluff by betting that they have a superior hand, forcing other players to call (match) their bet or concede.
During each betting interval, players must decide whether to check, call or raise. A player who raises a stake must continue to do so until every active player has either raised their stake or folded.
To check is to place a bet of no more than the amount of the last player to do so. This allows you to stay in the hand until a showdown, but you cannot win more than you have invested. Players who say “call” must match the previous player’s raise or else fold their cards. If you want to raise the stake even further, you must say “raise” and then add a sum of money equal to or greater than the original bet. The other players must then either call or raise again, whichever is most appropriate to the situation.