Poker is a card game played by people for money. It may seem like a game of chance, but the players’ decisions are actually made using strategies that involve odds, psychology, and mathematics.

The goal is to win the most money in a round by making a good hand with the cards you’re dealt. The best hand is a royal flush, which consists of all the highest cards (ace, king, queen, and jack) in one suit. You can also make a straight, which is 5 consecutive cards of the same rank; a flush, which has 3 matching cards of one rank and 2 matching cards of another; or a pair, which consists of two cards of one rank plus two unmatched cards.

There are many different types of poker games, but Texas Hold’em is probably the most popular. It is the type of poker you’ll see on TV and in most casinos. In this variant, each player is dealt two cards, called hole cards, and then five community cards are revealed in stages: three cards, known as the flop; an additional single card, known as the turn; and finally a final card, known as the river.

When it’s your turn to act, you can call the bet made by the player before you or raise it, increasing the amount of money that you’re betting. You can also fold, which means you give up your hand and forfeit any money that you’ve already bet.