Poker is a card game where players bet against each other and the house. There are several different variants of the game and players can play in either cash games or tournaments. The goal of the game is to extract the most value from winning hands and minimise losses when you have a losing hand. This is called aiming for a min-max strategy.
During each betting interval, known as a round, the first player to act places a bet of one or more chips into the pot. Then, each player to their left must call the bet by putting in the same amount of chips or raise it. A player who cannot call a bet must “fold” and will not get the chance to act again until the next round.
A player’s position at the table can have a big impact on their starting hand range and strategy. When a player acts in early positions like the small blind or the big blind, they are at a disadvantage because they are working with less information than other players who have more time to make decisions and read players’ actions.
A poker hand is a combination of cards that form a specific rank, such as two pair or three of a kind. The higher the rank, the more valuable the hand. There are also a number of other combinations that make up different poker hands, such as straights or bluffs.