Poker is a card game that is played with a deck of cards and chips. The objective of the game is to get the best hand possible, but it also involves a lot of strategy and luck.

The first step to playing poker is to decide your ante, which is the minimum amount you need to buy into the game. Once the ante has been determined, the dealer will deal two cards to each player. The players will take a look at their cards and decide whether to bet or fold.

In every betting interval, one player in turn makes a bet and each player to the left must either call, which means that they put into the pot the same number of chips as the player before them; raise, which means that they put into the pot more than they would have called; or fold, which means that they do not place any chips in the pot and drop out of the betting until the next round of play.

There is a limit to the number of chips that can be bet or raised, and any chip that is used to make a bet or raise counts as part of the pot. For example, if there are six chips in the pot and a bet of four is made, that bet counts as 10 chips.

When all but one player folds on a betting round, that player collects the entire pot. If more than one player remains in contention, a showdown takes place between the hands and the winner is the player with the best hand.