Poker is a card game of chance that requires skill and luck. The game is played with a small group of players sitting around a table. Each player has a set of chips that represent money. The goal of the game is to win a pot, which is the total sum of bets made in any deal. The players may place their bets based on the expected value of their hand or by trying to bluff other players for various strategic reasons. The game can be played with any number of cards, though two or more is most common.
Each betting interval (or round) begins when one player, designated by the rules of the particular game, makes a bet of one or more chips. Each player to his left must either “call” that bet, putting in the same number of chips, or raise it. If a player does not call the bet, he “drops” his hand, forfeiting any rights to the original pot, and may not compete for any side pots that are created.
While a portion of the outcome of any individual hand depends on chance, most bets are placed voluntarily by players who believe that their action has a positive expectation of return. These decisions are based on a combination of probability, psychology and game theory. In addition, players can use strategies to improve their chances of winning by observing the other players’ behavior at the table, which is known as reading tells.