Poker is a popular card game played around the world. It is played with poker chips, which are typically red, white, black, blue or green in color and are assigned a value prior to the start of the game.

How to Play:

A player begins the game by “buying in” (usually a specified number of chips) and placing them into a central pot. The dealer then assigns a value to each chip and exchanges cash from players for the appropriately valued chips.

Ante:

In some variants of the game, one or more players are required to place an initial amount of money into the pot, called an ante. These are usually the person to the left of the dealer, known as the small blind; and the person two positions to the left of the dealer, known as a big blind.

Each betting interval, or round, begins with the player to the left of the dealer making a bet. The next player to the left must either call the bet by putting into the pot the same number of chips, or raise the bet, if they believe that the previous player’s bet was too small; or drop, or fold, which means that they put no chips into the pot, discard their hand, and are out of the betting until the next deal.

Showdown:

The final betting round ends with the player to the left of the dealer revealing their cards and the winner being the player with the best 5-card hand out of their 7 cards. In some variations, a hand is judged on its high card or on its pair of cards.