Poker is a card game played between two or more players for money or chips. There are many variants of the game, but all have the same basic elements. Players place bets in a pot (representing the sum of all bets made) on the strength of a five-card hand. Players can also bluff, betting that they have the best hand when in fact they do not. If they can get other players to call their bet, they win the pot.
Each player starts with two cards and then aims to create the highest-ranking poker hand of five from those cards, plus the five community cards on the table. Depending on the rules of the variant being played, a player may also be given additional cards or replaced cards as part of the deal.
If a player wants to add more to the pot they can say “raise” and each other player will go around in clockwise order choosing to either match the raise or fold their hand. Players may also say “check” to stay in the pot without adding more money if they do not wish to raise.
If no one else raises on the next round then that player can continue to check until someone does raise again. If a player does raise then they must add the amount of their stake to the total stakes in the pot, and can only win the pot once everyone has revealed their hand at showdown.