Poker is a card game that involves betting between players. It is played with a standard deck of 52 cards and involves one or more rounds of betting. Players may also choose to bluff, or wager that they have a good hand when they do not. In this case, other players must either call (match) the bet or concede the hand.
Depending on the rules of the game, an initial amount of money must be placed in the pot before the cards are dealt. This is called the ante. Some poker variants also have blind bets, which replace or supplement the ante. In a game with blind bets, a player who wishes to check must place an amount into the pot that is equal to or higher than the last raise.
After the antes and blinds have been placed, each player is dealt two cards face down (hidden from other players). Then, 3 more cards are dealt face up on the table, which are called the flop. These community cards can be used to create a poker hand of five cards. A poker hand must contain at least four cards to qualify as a winning hand.
A winning poker hand must include at least three matching cards of the same rank. A full house includes three cards of the same rank and two matching cards of another rank. A straight contains five consecutive cards of the same suit, while a flush is any 5 cards of the same suit that skip around in rank.