Poker is a game of strategy, chance, and bluffing. It is played with cards and a betting round, and the player with the best hand wins the pot. The game has many variations, but most share similar rules. Some require a blind bet, called a “blind” or an “ante,” and others don’t. In any case, players should only gamble with money they’re willing to lose. They should also track their wins and losses so they can figure out whether they’re winning or losing in the long run.

To begin a hand of poker, the deck is shuffled and then dealt to each player. There is then a betting phase, and the player with the best 5-card hand wins the pot. There are usually several rounds of betting during a hand, and each one starts with the player to the left of the big blind.

When it’s your turn, you can choose to call the bet made by the player before you or raise it. If you call, you must place into the pot at least as many chips as the previous player’s bet. You can also fold if you don’t want to play your hand anymore.

If you have pocket kings and an ace on the flop, for instance, you should be cautious—you might want to call instead of folding. This is because the flop may contain lots of straight cards and flushes, which can spell doom for your good pocket hands.

As you play more, you’ll start to develop instincts that help you make good decisions quickly. Practice by watching experienced players, and consider how you’d react in their position. This will build your intuition for things like frequencies and EV estimation, so you’ll be able to make these calculations automatically during hands.

Almost all poker games are played with a set of colored chips that represent different values, with white chips being worth the lowest value and red chips being worth the highest. Each player should have a supply of at least 200 chips—or, in some cases, more. In addition, the poker table must have a special “pot” where each player puts their bets and raises into. This pot is a large circle on the table, and it’s usually marked with a line running around its perimeter. The pot is used to collect the total amount of bets in each betting interval or round. Depending on the game, this can be a small amount, such as the minimum ante or bet; it can also be a much larger sum of money.