Poker is a card game that involves betting and the use of combinations of cards to form a hand. It is played from a standard pack of 52 cards with one or more wild cards, depending on the game. The highest hand wins. A hand may consist of any number of cards, but a pair, straight and flushes are common hands. Some games also include wild cards (jokers) or specific rules for the rank of each suit.
Before cards are dealt, one or more players must place an initial amount of money into the pot. This is called a forced bet and can take the form of an ante, blinds or bring-ins. The dealer then shuffles the deck and cuts it. Cards are then dealt to the players one at a time, starting with the player on the left of the dealer. There are usually several rounds of betting in a hand of poker.
Once each player has 2 cards, they can say that they want to hit (take another card) or stay (keep the cards they have). If a player thinks their original cards are of low value, they can also raise their bet by saying raise.
Ties in poker are broken by high card (or sometimes the best low hand). Four of a kind is any four cards of the same rank and a fifth card of any rank. A straight is five consecutive cards of the same suit, such as 6-4-3-2-A. The highest hand is the Royal Flush, which consists of a 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace of the same suit in a straight sequence (such as J-8-5-3-2-A).