Poker is a card game where players place bets on their hand. The player with the best five-card hand wins the pot. There are many different variations of poker, but they all have similar rules. At the beginning of the game, each player puts a certain amount of chips into the pot (called an ante). Then, cards are dealt. Then each player bets in turn. A bet must at least match the amount of the previous bet, but may exceed it. A bet that exactly matches the previous bet is called calling, while a bet that increases the amount of the previous bet is raising.
A pair is two distinct cards of the same rank, and a three-of-a-kind is three distinct cards of the same rank. Four of a kind is four cards of the same rank, and a flush is five consecutive matching cards, and high card breaks ties.
You can also get a full house, which is four of a kind and the queen of spades. There is also a straight, which is five cards in a row of the same rank. A high card is any card that doesn’t qualify as a pair, three of a kind, or any of the other hands.