Poker is a card game played by two or more players and involves betting between turns. The object of the game is to win the pot, which is the sum total of all bets placed during a single deal. A player can win the pot by having the best poker hand or by making a bet that no one else calls. A good poker strategy includes betting aggressively to force weaker hands out of the game, as well as bluffing. There are many different poker games, but the ideal number of players is six or more.
Each player has a stack of chips that they use to place bets. At the beginning of each betting interval, the first player to act places a bet, and all players either call this bet (put in as many chips as they wish) or raise it by placing additional chips into the pot. A player may also “drop,” which means they put in no chips, discard their cards and leave the game until the next deal.
A poker game typically has a special fund called the “kitty,” which is built up by cutting one low-denomination chip from each pot in which there is more than one raise. This money is used to pay for new decks of cards and other supplies, and any chips left in the kitty when the game ends are distributed evenly among the players who remain in the game.