Poker is a card game for two or more players. The object is to win a pot – the sum of all bets made during a single deal – by having a high-ranking poker hand at the end of the game. A player may also bluff in an attempt to force weaker hands to fold, increasing the value of their own pot. The game is played with chips that have a specific denomination and are used to make bets. The game can be slow and methodical or fast-paced with a lot of betting.

To decide how much to bet, players must evaluate their own chances of having a good hand and the probabilities that other players will have different hands. This is called estimating under uncertainty, and it’s one of the key skills that professional poker players use.

In most poker games, each player puts an ante or blind bet before the cards are dealt. The dealer then shuffles the pack and deals each player a number of cards, starting with the player on their left. The players can then choose to raise or fold their hands.

The highest-ranking hand is the royal flush, which consists of a 10 (jack), king, queen, or ace of the same suit. Other good hands include 4 of a kind (4 cards of the same rank), a straight, or a flush. Players can also make pairs (two matching cards of the same rank) or two-card straights.