Poker is a card game played with five cards. In some games, an ace can be treated as the lowest card. If a player has two pairs of the same suit, they win the hand. Otherwise, the player with the highest pair wins. There are a number of rules and variations for this game, so it’s important to learn the rules of each variant before you play it.

During each betting period, the players place chips into the pot. The first player to place a bet is the “first movers” and is referred to as the “pot maker”. In the following betting interval, all players are required to put in chips that are equal to the total contribution of the player before him. That player is known as the active player.

The cards are usually dealt face down. Some games use more than one pack of cards or add jokers. The poker cards are ranked from Ace high to Ace low. When a hand contains the highest value card, it’s considered a “high hand.” A straight flush starts with a pair of aces.

Poker is played with one or more players, but the optimal number of players is six to eight. Each player has two cards in his or her hand, while the other five cards are dealt on the table. The amount of money in the pot is called the “pot.” The highest-ranking hand wins the pot.