Poker is a game of chance that requires some amount of skill. While luck plays a major role in any particular hand, the long-run expected returns of players are determined by actions they choose on the basis of probability, psychology and game theory.
A player must ante some money (amount varies by game) to get dealt cards and then place bets into a pot in the middle of the table. The highest hand wins the pot.
When it’s your turn to act, you can either call the bet made by the player before you, raise your own bet or fold your hand. Saying “call” means you’re placing the same number of chips into the pot as the person before you, raising is placing a higher number of chips than the last person and folding is giving up your cards and dropping out of the betting.
Depending on the rules of your game, after the betting is over, you can discard and draw replacement cards. This allows you to make a new hand of five cards consisting of the two cards in your hand and the five community cards on the table.
One of the most important aspects of poker strategy is understanding your opponents. Many professional players are ultra-conservative and play only the best hands, but this can lead to boredom in the short run. Learn to read your opponents by observing their body language, idiosyncrasies, eye movements, betting behavior and other subtle physical poker tells.