Poker is a family of card games that require players to make a bet based on the strength of their hand. The game is played with a deck (or pack) of cards and bets are made with plastic or ceramic discs called chips.

Poker originated in England and quickly spread to other countries. It is now played throughout the world in hundreds of variants.

Rules vary by variant, but most Poker games consist of one deal distributing one card facedown and one card faceup to each active player. Each deal is interrupted for a betting interval, and a showdown occurs after the last betting interval.

The betting intervals are typically divided into two or more rounds, and each round ends when the betting turns to a new bettor who either matches the previous bet or raises his bet by a certain amount. When all betting has been equalized, or the last bettor has folded, the pot is won by the player with the best hand.

Each poker hand is rated from highest to lowest, with the rank of a single card often breaking ties if two or more hands have identical cards. The ace is usually the most valuable card, followed by kings, queens, jacks, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, and 4, as in the order shown below.

Each betting interval has a number of bets and raises, and the maximum bet in each is capped, that is, a player can only bet or raise as much as the last bet or raise. The total bet in the first betting interval is known as the ante, while that in the second and third rounds is the call, and that in the fourth and fifth is the raise.