Poker is a card game played by 2 or more players. Each player puts down a amount of money for betting each round, and the person with the best poker hand wins the round. There are many different forms of Poker, but most share the following aspects:
The game is played with a standard 52-card deck (some variants use multiple decks or add Jokers as wild cards). Each player has two hole cards which they keep hidden from the other players. Once everyone has their hole cards, there is a round of betting initiated by the two mandatory bets placed into the pot (called blinds) by the players to the left of the dealer.
After the betting round, a third card is dealt face up, this is called the flop. There is another round of betting, and if you have a good poker hand, it is often correct to bet at this point to force out weaker hands.
If you have a strong poker hand, but don’t believe it is the best, you can “fold” and leave the table. This can be a smart move, especially when you are not getting much action in your hands and your opponent’s bets are large.
The goal of the game is to extract the most value from your winning hands, and minimise losses from losing ones. This is sometimes called minmax, and it is an important part of any good poker strategy.
