Poker is a card game where players compete against each other to win the highest hand. There are many variants of the game, including:
Rules and strategy
Poker starts with a shuffled deck of cards. The initial dealer deals cards in rotation to the left, faceup, until a jack is revealed.
In a poker game, players bet in rounds, and the higher hand wins. After a specified number of rounds or after a certain number of people have folded, the remaining players participate in a showdown to reveal their hands.
The standard 52-card deck is used, though some games use a combination of different decks or add extra cards called jokers. The cards are ranked from high to low, and each hand has five cards.
Aces are the lowest, while King, Queen and Jack rank highest. In games that allow wild cards, some jokers are allowed to take on a different suit than their owner desires.
Royal flush, or straight flush, is the highest natural hand in poker. It consists of 10 through Ace of the same suit, with no other suit being higher.
Four of a kind, or full house, is a hand that combines four cards from the same suit (such as J-8-5-3-2) with another card from any suit.
Three of a kind is a hand that includes three cards from the same suit and one from any other suit.
Some poker players like to bluff, or try to convince other players that they have a good hand before they actually have one. Bluffing is a common tactic in poker and can be successful if done properly.