Poker is a card game in which players place bets on the possibility of making a winning hand. There are many variants of poker, but most involve a minimum of two players and a maximum of 14. Each player is required to make a forced bet (the ante or the blind), and then the dealer shuffles the cards and deals them out one at a time, beginning with the player on his or her left. The players then have the option to call the bet, raise it, or fold. When a player folds, he or she discards their cards and is out of the betting round.
After the initial deal, a betting round begins, and each player has the choice to either call the bet (put in chips equal to or greater than the amount raised by the player to his or her left) or raise it. If no player calls the bet, then the remaining players can check their hands.
After the first betting round, the dealer puts down a third card on the table that everyone can use (the flop). Now all the players have another chance to raise or lower their bets, and once this is done, the fourth and final betting round commences. After this, all players reveal their hands and the player with the best five-card poker hand wins the pot. If there is a tie, then the pot is split among the players who have a high enough ranking to win it.