Poker is a card game where players bet on their hands using five cards. The basic game involves five players who are dealt five cards face down. Each player is allowed to make one bet per round. In straight poker, players can raise their bets by drawing cards from the undealt part of the pack. Players who do not wish to draw cards are referred to as “standing pat.” Following the first betting round, the players must then bet again and the winner is the person with the best hand.
The objective of poker is to have the best poker hand and win the pot by betting until all other players have either folded or have lost. If a player wins the pot, the player with the best hand wins all the money bet during the hand. If the players have the same hand, the pot is split between all players. If more than one player has a winning hand, the game is called a “showdown.”
Unlike traditional poker games, poker has a betting interval system. Generally, players can raise their stakes once every three to four bets are made. However, after three or four raises, the stakes are too large and a player will lose because he does not have enough money. Hence, the house rules generally limit the number of raises after three or four. However, in a tournament, this is not always the case.