Poker is a card game that can be played with any number of players, from two to 14. It is a gambling game, where players try to win money by having the best five-card hand. There are many different forms of poker, but they all share certain basic rules.

Each player is dealt two cards face down, which are hidden from other players. They may choose to check, call or raise a bet. The player who has the highest hand wins all of the money in the pot. Sometimes the player’s best hand is a pair of the same suit, which is known as a straight or flush. The value of the pair increases in inverse proportion to its frequency, or how rare it is for that combination of cards to appear.

A third card is then dealt to the table as a community card, and there is another betting round. If no one has a better hand, the player who revealed their cards loses all of the money in the pot.

A key skill in poker is being able to read your opponents’ body language, which is called “tells.” These are unconscious habits or expressions that reveal information about the strength of a player’s hand. The most common tells are eye contact, facial expressions and gestures. The ability to read these tells is essential for any serious poker player. However, not everyone has the skills to do this successfully.