Poker is a card game played by two or more players against each other and the dealer. The aim of the game is to make a winning hand from the cards you are dealt (hole cards) and the community cards shared with the other players. The best hand wins the pot, which is all the chips bet so far.
Each betting interval, or round, begins when one player places a bet of one or more chips. A player may call the bet, raise it, or fold. If a player folds they lose all the chips they have placed in that pot.
It is important to keep the action moving in a Poker game and this can be done by varying your betting style and by bluffing. A good player will also read the other players and try to determine their range of hands. A player who plays it safe will find themselves missing out on opportunities to win large sums of money because their opponents will be able to tell when they are holding a weak or strong hand.
Poker has a variety of rules and strategies that differ from other card games but the basic rules are the same. Several different versions of the game are played worldwide. The game originated in the sixteenth century as a German bluffing game called Pochen and evolved into a French game named Poque. It was then brought over to New Orleans and played on the riverboats that plied the Mississippi River.