Poker is a card game in which players bet on the strength of their hand. It is a casino game and an American pastime with a worldwide following, played in casinos, private games, poker clubs, and on the Internet. The game has a long history and is known for its bluffing, bets, and complicated rules.
The object of the game is to win the pot, the sum of all bets made during a deal. The pot is won by a player who has the best five-card hand or, in the case of a tie, by bluffing if all other players do not call his bet. The cards are dealt clockwise around the table, and each player must reveal his or her hand at some point during the betting phase.
A player may choose to call (match the amount of money put into the pot by the player to his or her left), raise (bet more than the previous player), or fold. The player who folds loses all chips he or she has placed in the pot for that round.
There are many variants of poker, but all have certain basic features. For example, the game is almost always played with poker chips, which have different values: A white chip, for instance, is worth one unit; a red chip is worth five whites. There are also some variations of the game involving more than five players, but these are less common.