Poker is a card game that can be played by two or more players. The object of the game is to win the pot, which is the sum total of bets placed by all players in any given round. The winning hand is determined by a showdown after all players have revealed their cards.
Before the cards are dealt, each player must place a mandatory bet, called an ante. This is done to ensure that all players have invested some amount of money into the pot and that the game does not go on for too long. The dealer then shuffles the deck and deals cards to each player, one at a time, starting with the player to his or her left. The player to the left may cut if he or she does not want any of the cards.
After the initial deal, there is a first betting round (known as the flop). Once this has concluded, another card is dealt face up, known as the turn. After the turn, there is a final betting round. The players then reveal their cards and the player with the best hand wins the pot.
While there are many variants of the game, most share certain core features. Each player is dealt two hole cards and must make a hand from these, plus the five community cards that are shared among all players. The value of a poker hand is in inverse proportion to its mathematical frequency, which means that the more unusual a combination of cards, the higher the hand rank. Players may raise their bets by indicating that they have a good hand, or they can bluff and hope that other players will call their bets.