Poker is a card game of chance and skill in which players wager money against each other, with the winner taking all the chips. The game is played with a standard deck of 52 cards, including four suits (spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs). Some games use wild cards or other special rules to create different types of hands.

The first round of betting begins once all the players have received their 2 hole cards. This is initiated by two mandatory bets called blinds placed into the pot by the players to the left of the dealer. This ensures that there is a pot to win, which provides an incentive for players to play.

After the first round of betting, 3 more cards are dealt to the table face up. This is called the flop. Another round of betting ensues, with players either raising or dropping out if they do not think they have a good hand.

If players decide to raise, they must match the amount of the bet made by the player before them in order to stay in the hand. This is called calling.

Once all players have called the bets, the dealer then turns over his cards and the player with the highest hand wins the pot. Usually, the highest hand will consist of a pair of the same rank, but sometimes, other combinations are possible, such as three of a kind, or a full house.

While luck plays a large role in the outcome of any given hand, the long-run expected returns on bets and raises are determined by decisions that each player makes based on probability, psychology and game theory. Von Neumann showed that a player who bets large with their best hands and raises their bet size as bluffs at a certain frequency will do no worse than break even in the long run.

Before the first deal, players may agree to establish a pot limit. A pot limit is a fixed number of chips that a player may put into the pot in any one betting interval. Players may not raise by more than the pot limit, and a player who raises by more than the pot limit is said to have “dropped.”

After each betting interval, the kitty, or side pot, may be established by a single low-denomination chip, and this belongs to all players equally. The kitty can be used to pay for new cards, drinks and food. If a player drops out of a side pot, they lose their rights to that pot. Players may also build up a kitty in an open game by cutting a single low-denomination chip from each pot that has more than one raise.