Poker is a card game played between two or more players and governed by certain rules. It is a game of chance, but can also involve strategy. It is important to be able to read your opponents and exploit their tendencies. It is also important to know how to bluff properly.
The game is played with chips which are assigned values prior to the start of the game. A player may choose to place a bet into the pot by placing any number of chips in the center of the table. If the player chooses to raise the bet, the player to their left must either call or fold their cards. The player with the highest hand wins the pot.
There are many different forms of poker, but most have the same basic structure. A complete poker hand consists of five cards and the player who makes the highest value hand wins the pot. The game can be played with any number of players, though the ideal number is six or seven.
In the early 20th century, von Neumann formulated an optimal strategy for poker by analyzing a simplified version of the game in which players were dealt secret numbers and asked to make a bet on whose number was higher. By comparing the results of this game to real-life poker, von Neumann showed that by making large bets with their best hands and bluffing at a specific percentage of their weaker hands, players could break even in the long run.