Poker is a card game where players wager money against one another. The object of the game is to win a pot, which is the sum of all the bets placed in any given deal. A player may win the pot by having the best poker hand, or by betting and raising other players’ stakes. A player may also win the pot by simply refusing to fold (bluffing).
There are many variants of poker, with different rules governing how the game is played. Some games require a blind bet before the cards are dealt, while others have an ante. In most cases, a player who wishes to stay in the pot must make a bet equal to or higher than that of the last player. This is called calling.
The rules of the game are generally agreed upon before the game begins. It is also common for the players to set down rules governing how the money won by the winner will be distributed among the remaining players at the end of the game.
In most cases, a person wins the game when they have the best 5-card poker hand. If no one has a winning hand, the money that was put down as chips is divided equally among all the players who have poker hands. There are also some instances when the game ends in a tie. This can happen when two or more players have the same hand, such as a pair of sixes.