Poker is a card game that takes place on a table with one or more players. Generally, players place a bet into the middle of the table called the pot when it is their turn to act. Players may raise, call or check depending on the situation and their hand. The player who raises the most wins the pot at the end of the hand.

Before a round of betting begins, the deck is shuffled and a single player (typically the first person to act) becomes the dealer for that hand. This dealer is typically given a special chip designated as the button to indicate this position and to keep track of which player has the dealer role. A player who does not wish to be the dealer will pass the position clockwise to the next player after each hand.

The cards used in poker are standard playing cards, ranked from high to low: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3. Each poker hand must contain five cards. The highest ranking poker hand wins the pot. Some games use wild cards or other special cards to add variation and complexity to the game.

The dealer will begin the game by passing out a number of cards to each player. They may pass these out in sets or create a community card pile. Once all players have their cards, a round of betting will begin. Players can call, raise or fold their hands. If they fold, they surrender their hand and lose any bets they have placed in the current round. If they raise, the other players must call the bet or else raise their own bet amount to match it.