A card game that involves betting on the strength of a hand. Players must have a hand that is higher than that of their opponents or risk losing all of their money. They can also win by bluffing, which requires projecting confidence in their hands and betting that they are better than they are in the hope that players with superior hands will call the bet rather than risk losing all their money by taking them on in a showdown.

Poker has many variants and can be played in a variety of settings, from glitzy casinos to seedy dives. Regardless of where and how the game is played, however, some basic principles apply.

Most forms of poker require a forced bet before a hand begins, usually called the blind or ante. These are placed by players in turn before they are dealt cards. After the ante or blind is placed, the dealer shuffles and deals each player a set of five cards. The cards may be dealt face-up or face-down, depending on the poker variant being played. The first of several betting intervals then begins.

The highest-ranking poker hand is the royal flush, which consists of a 10-jack, queen, king, and ace of all one suit. A straight flush is 5 consecutive cards of the same rank, and a three of a kind is 3 matching cards of one rank, plus two unmatched cards of another rank. When a duplicate card is added to the board, it is said to have been “counterfeited.”