Poker is a card game of chance, but once betting begins the skill element becomes much more important (though it’s still mostly just a matter of odds and psychology). In the beginning, players are forced to put in some money before seeing their hands, which creates a pot immediately and encourages competition. The cards are then dealt face up and there is a round of betting. A player can choose to call the bet by putting in their own chips into the pot, raise it by raising the amount that their opponents have raised, or fold.

Each player then gets two cards which form their personal hand, plus five community cards. There are different categories of hands and each has a higher ranking than the lower ones. For example, a flush beats a straight and three of a kind beats two pair. The highest of these hands is the royal flush which consists of the 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace of the same suit. The high card is used to break ties in case of identical hands.

As the game progresses, players are able to read each other better. Each action, whether it’s to fold, call, raise or check communicates something about the player’s hand and gives the opponent bits of information to build a story about them. This is what makes reading your opponents a critical part of the game. Many of these actions are not subtle and can include such tells as breathing heavily, a hand over the nose or playing nervously with your chips.