Poker is a card game played with a standard 52-card deck. The object is to form the best possible five-card hand, using both your own cards and the community cards on the table. The player with the highest-ranking hand wins the pot at the end of each betting round. The pot is the total amount of bets placed by all players.
Before the cards are dealt, each player must place an initial amount into the pot. These are called forced bets, and they come in the form of antes or blinds. The player to his or her immediate left places the first ante, and then each subsequent player must make a bet equal to or higher than the amount bet by the player before him. Players who want to stay in the pot must either call or raise.
After the flop, there is another round of betting. This is done in clockwise order around the table, and each player must reveal their hand if they wish to stay in the game. A winning hand is made up of 5 matching cards, and may be either a full house (3 matching cards of one rank and 2 matching cards of another), a straight (cards in consecutive order but not from the same suit), or a pair (2 matching cards).
The key to success in poker is learning when to bluff and when to fold. A good bluff can help you win pots that would otherwise have been lost, and can push other players out of the game if they have weak hands. A bluff that fails, on the other hand, can be costly, and should only be used when you think it will work.