Poker is a card game played in rounds, with bets placed by players who are in first position to act. The goal is to make the best 5-card hand from the cards you are dealt. A player who makes the best hand wins the pot. Players contribute an initial amount of money into the pot before each hand begins called Antes.
Like life, poker is a game in which resources must be committed before all the information about a situation is known. Even the most accomplished poker players are not heedless risk-seeking gamblers; they are diligent students of the game who have spent thousands of hours perfecting their strategies.
The game is played with chips, and players buy-in for a set number of them at the start of a session. A white chip is worth one unit, a red chip is worth five units and a black chip is worth 10 units.
A player who has the most valuable cards in a poker hand at a given moment is said to have the nuts. A player with a pair of 7’s on the flop is considered to have the nuts, as would a person with pocket 8’s on the turn.
When your turn comes to act, you can choose to Call the previous player’s bet, Raise your own bet or Fold, forfeiting your hand and any previously contributed chips. You can also muck your cards (discard them) or add them to the draw stack.