Poker is a popular card game played with chips, usually in a casino. The goal of the game is to get the best five-card hand possible at the end of a round.

The game starts with a dealer, who may be a person or a machine. He or she deals cards to the players one at a time, beginning with the player on the left of the dealer button.

During each betting interval, each player has an opportunity to make a bet of a fixed number of chips. The bet can either be called by all other players, raised, or dropped (“folded”) unless the player is willing to put into the pot at least as many chips as have been put in by any player before him.

In addition, each player is given a chance to discard their hand and remain in the game without making a bet. This practice is known as “checking.”

Bluffing, the ability to trick other players into thinking that they have a superior hand to what they actually have, is a major part of poker. It is an essential skill to have because a good poker player can minimize losses by having a poor hand and maximize winnings by having a good hand.

The game is played with a deck of cards and poker chips, which are usually light colored (white), with a small amount of red or blue in them. The white chip is the lowest-valued chip, worth whatever the minimum ante or bet is; a red or blue chip is worth more than a white chip.