Poker is a card game in which players place bets against one another. The bets are made with poker chips, which are used to indicate how much a player wishes to wager on his or her hand. Typically, each bet is worth the same amount of chips as the player to his or her left (the “call”), or more than the player to his or her left (the ‘raise’). If a player chooses to fold, he or she discards their hand and may not compete for the pot again until the next betting interval.

A hand is considered strong if it contains three matching cards of one rank and two pairs of other cards. Three of a kind is any three matching cards of the same rank. A flush is five consecutive cards of the same suit. A straight is any five cards that skip around in rank but are all from the same suit. Two pair is any two cards of the same rank, and a high card is any card that is higher than any other card in your hand.

There is a lot of money to be made in poker, but only if you play smart. A player’s win rate is determined by his or her knowledge of the game, the ability to make good decisions and bluff when appropriate, and the strength of his or her hands. It is also important to understand how to read your opponents and exploit their weaknesses.