Poker is a card game in which players wager chips (representing money) and, if they have the best hand at the end of a betting round, win the pot. While there are elements of randomness and gambling in poker, it also involves considerable skill and psychology, especially when playing against other experienced players.
Each round of poker has a dealer who is responsible for shuffling and dealing the cards to the players. The dealer is typically a player but can also be a non-player. The dealer is identified by a chip which is passed on to the new dealer after each round. There are often additional rules of betting that depend on the position of the dealer.
After each player has two cards, a betting round begins. The first bet is made by the player to the left of the dealer, and then each player must place enough chips into the pot (representing money) to make their contribution at least equal to that of the player before them.
A poker hand is a combination of cards that ranks higher than any other. Typical poker hands include pairs, threes of a kind, fours of a kind, straights, and flushes. The highest ranking hands are five of a kind. When ties occur, they are broken by the highest unmatched card or secondary pairs (in a full house, for example). Some games allow wild cards, which may take on any suit and rank to break ties.