Poker is a card game played by two or more players. It is played with a small number of chips and is very fast-paced. Each round of betting begins when a player places a bet of one or more chips into the pot. Players can then either “call” the bet (match it) or raise it.

A good poker player must be able to read his opponent. There are a wide range of personalities in the game, from the recreational player who thinks nothing of losing money so long as it is fun, to the hard-core nit who clutches every chip for dear life. Only by understanding your opponents can you put them on a range of hands and make the correct decision most of the time.

The game of poker mimics the way we must often make decisions in life without knowing the outcome beforehand. Whether it is a job interview or a poker hand, we must be willing to take a risk and gamble on something we do not know the outcome of in order to achieve a desired goal. Too often we play it safe, and this leads to mediocrity and a lack of opportunities where a little risk could have yielded huge rewards. To be successful in poker, and in life, we must weigh the odds of success against the amount of resources we have invested. This is what we call “risk/reward” analysis. A good risk/reward analysis will allow us to minimize the amount of money we lose.