Poker is a card game where players bet on the strength of their hands to add money or chips to an ever-growing pot. The winner is the person with the highest ranked hand when all of the cards are revealed. It is common to have rules for how this pot will be shared among the players at the end of a hand or the entire game.

A player can check, call, raise or fold at any time. After each round of betting, the dealer puts another three cards face up on the table that everyone can use. This is known as the flop. After this a fourth community card is revealed in the third betting stage called the turn and then another one in the fifth and final stage called the river.

There are many different types of poker hands but the most common ones include a high pair (two matching cards of the same rank) and a straight or flush. A flush is five consecutive cards of the same suit (for example A-2-3-4-5-7). A straight is five consecutive cards of different suits that don’t match each other (for example 10-J-Q-J-10-5).

The most important skill in poker is learning to read your opponents. This doesn’t just mean observing subtle physical poker tells like fiddling with their hands or scratching their nose, but also studying their patterns. For example, if a player who usually calls all the time suddenly starts raising it’s likely they have a strong hand.