How to Play Poker

Poker is a card game with a lot of strategy involved. Players use their own two hidden cards (or “hole cards”) along with the five community cards that are dealt to form a poker hand. The highest ranked hand wins. Often, poker hands are made from a combination of suits such as a royal flush or a straight flush. Other times, a hand can be made up of distinct ranks such as three of a kind or two pair. High cards are used to break ties.

The first step to learning poker is familiarizing yourself with the rules and hand rankings. This can be done by reading a book or watching poker games online on sites like Twitch. Watching players in real time is a great way to pick up on their playing styles and learn how to spot when they are bluffing.

Once you have a solid grasp of the rules, it’s time to start betting. Players can either Call, Raise or Fold after each betting round. If they Call or Raise, they are adding more money to the pot. This will make it more expensive for other players to continue betting at their poker hand.

Once the betting is complete, each player turns their poker hand up and the player with the best poker hand wins the pot/all of the bets. The dealer wins if no one has a better hand. Poker can be a very addicting and exciting game!