Poker is a card game played with chips that represent money. Players place these chips into the pot when they make a bet. The highest hand wins the pot. Some games also include wild cards.
Each player begins the game by putting an amount of money into the pot (called an ante). Then they are dealt two cards face down, which are hidden from the other players. These are called their hole cards. Then the flop is dealt. These are community cards that can be used by all players to build their hands. This is followed by another betting phase. At the end of all the betting, the players reveal their hands and the player with the highest hand wins the pot.
If no one has a high hand, the highest kicker wins. This is the highest unmatched card in a hand that includes three of a kind or more. Some games have wild cards, which can take on any suit or rank. These are often used as jokers, but can also be a part of the deck.
There are many poker tells that players use to try and gain an advantage over other players. These tells can range from body language to what is said in a conversation. They can be reliable or unreliable depending on the situation and how they are read by other players. The shortest tells are usually the most genuine, while long drawn out reveals can be false and misleading.