Poker is a card game in which players place bets on the value of their hands. The player with the highest hand wins the pot. A key skill is bluffing, where a player projects confidence in a weak hand to encourage opponents to fold and take their chances with a stronger one.

The game can be played by two or more players, with cards being dealt face up on a table in front of them. Each player has a turn to call, raise, or drop their cards. Each betting interval, or round, begins when a player puts in a bet of one or more chips into the pot. The player to their left can then call the bet by putting in the same amount of chips or raise it. If a player has no more than a pair, they can “drop” their cards and leave the pot.

A player can also win the pot by bluffing. This involves projecting confidence in a weak hand to encourage opponents who may be unsure of the strength of their own. It can be risky, though, as a good opponent will know when to call your bluff.

Some poker games are fixed limit, while others are no-limit or pot-limit. In a fixed-limit game, each player can only raise their bet a certain number of times per street. In no-limit and pot-limit games, players can raise unlimited amounts. A fund of chips that belongs to all the players is sometimes established, called a kitty, and used to pay for new decks of cards or food.