Poker is a card game played by two or more players and involves betting between turns. The winner is the person with the best five-card hand. The game can be played in a variety of ways, including Stud and Draw variants.

Some poker games have a dealer, who is responsible for shuffling the deck and dealing each player cards. The dealer can be a non-player or one of the players at the table. In some games, the dealer is assigned a chip and passes it on to a different player after each round. In others, a player is designated as the dealer by placing an extra chip in front of them.

During the course of a hand, players can raise or call the bets made by other players. Some players may also bluff, which is when they bet that they have a better hand than they actually do. If the players with superior hands call the bluff, the bluffer loses the pot.

In most cases, each player is dealt a total of seven cards. During the betting phase, the player to the left of the dealer bets first. After everyone has called or raised, the dealer reveals their cards and the player with the best hand wins the pot. Then, the next betting round with antes and blinds begins. Earlier vying games with less than seven cards include Belle, Flux & Trente-un (French, 17th – 18th centuries), Post & Pair (English, 16th – 18th centuries), Brag (18th century to present), and Bouillotte (late 18th / early 19th century, French). These ancestors have little or no bearing on the modern game of poker.