Poker is a card game in which the players compete to win a pot of chips. The player with the best poker hand wins all the chips in the pot. The player with the second-best poker hand wins half of the chips in the pot, and so on. The game can be played by two to 14 people, but the ideal number is seven or more.
The cards are dealt face up in a clockwise direction, and each player has one or more betting intervals during which they can call, raise, or fold. A player may also put all of their chips into the pot at the end of a betting interval, called all-in. There are special rules for how this works, depending on the variant of poker.
A player must have a minimum of ten chips to stay in the pot. A white chip is worth the lowest amount, a red chip is worth five whites, and so on. Some poker games use color-coded chips, and a player wishing to stay in the pot must match the stake of the last raiser. If a player cannot meet this requirement, they must drop out of the game and forfeit their stake in the pot. Alternatively, they can remain in the pot by raising it to the highest level possible. This strategy is called raising for value and is a crucial skill in the game. However, a player must be careful to avoid revealing their hand by watching the other players for tells.
