Poker is a card game in which players wager chips that represent money on the outcome of a hand. The game can be played by two or more players and the cards are dealt clockwise around the table. A player may choose to keep or discard any of the cards in his or her hand. The highest-ranked hand wins the pot. During the 2000s, Texas hold’em became one of the most popular forms of the game and was featured in television shows and poker tournaments.
Each player contributes a minimum amount of money to the pot before the cards are dealt. This contribution is known as the ante. Each player can also increase the amount of his or her contribution by raising. The raise must be made within a reasonable time after another player has raised. The raise must be higher than the previous bet. A player who folds a hand loses the amount of money he or she has contributed to the pot and cannot participate in any future betting rounds.
A poker game may be played with a standard pack of 52 cards or a stripped deck (cards removed from the pack that include all deuces and threes). Some games have wild cards, which take on whatever suit or rank their possessor wants them to have.
In addition to the rules stated in this rulebook, a set of standard poker rules, generally accepted by players at any given game, governs a wide variety of variations of the game. These rules are usually published by the owner of a particular establishment or may be obtained from the game’s creator or author. A copy of these rules is typically available in the game room for players to reference.