Poker is a card game of strategy and luck where you compete with other players to form the highest value hand. You use a combination of your own two personal cards in your hand and the five community cards on the table to make your hand. The highest ranking hand is a Royal Flush (10-Jack-Queen-King-Ace of the same suit). Other high-value hands include Straight, Four of a Kind, Three of a Kind, Two Pair, and One Pair.

A standard 52-card English deck is used, and two decks of cards with different back colors are typically used, with the one being unused left shuffled beside the dealer. Players can decide whether to use jokers or wild cards, but this is not a good idea for beginners as it increases the complexity of the game and makes it more difficult to determine relative hand strength.

In most poker games, each player contributes an amount of money to the pot before the cards are dealt. This is known as the ante. In some cases players may be required to place a forced bet, called a blind or bring-in bet. These bets are collected in addition to the antes and are a part of the overall pot size.

Once all players have placed their bets, the dealer will shuffle and cut the deck. Then the dealer will pass the deal position to the player on his/her right. Each round the player to his/her right will do this again until all players have their cards. The person who cuts the deck is also responsible for announcing any action on the turn, such as calling or raising a bet.

During the first betting round players have two personal cards, called hole cards, and will look at the other community cards on the table to determine their chances of making a high-value hand. Pocket kings and queens, for example, are a strong hand but an ace on the flop could spell disaster if it’s on the board.

After the first round of betting is complete, the dealer will put three additional community cards face up on the table. This is called the flop and it’s at this point that players will have to decide whether to stay in or fold their hand.

If no one has a strong hand after the flop, the dealer will deal a fifth community card on the “river,” or fourth betting round. After this the last remaining players will expose their hands and if they have a high value hand, win the pot. If no one has a high-value hand the pot is shared amongst all players. Players may also muck their cards and throw them into the discard pile (the burn pile) to avoid showing their hands.