Poker is a card game where players place bets on the probability of a given hand. The aim is to win the pot, which is the sum of all bets made during a deal. The pot can be won by having the highest-ranking hand or by betting bluffs that other players call. The game of poker has a rich history and varies widely in terms of the rules, but all poker games involve one or more rounds of betting.
During each betting interval, called a round, each player must either “call” the previous player’s bet by putting into the pot a similar amount or raise it. A player may also “fold” if they do not want to stay in the round, in which case they forfeit any chips they have already put into the pot.
A player can also bluff by pretending that they have a high-scoring hand when they do not have it, hoping that other players will call their bet and leave their chips to them. There are many ways to bluff in poker, but the two simplest are (i) pretendedly having a low-scoring hand in order to make other players fold and give you their cards; and (ii) pretending to have a high-scoring hand in order to entice other players to call your bet.
The game of poker is typically played with a fixed number of monetary units, called chips, which have different colors and values. A white chip is worth the lowest ante or bet, while a red chip is worth five whites and a blue chip is worth ten whites. The chips are usually passed around the table in clockwise direction after each hand is dealt. In some cases, the players may establish a special fund called a kitty to pay for new decks of cards or other expenses related to the game’s play.