Poker is a card game in which players place bets to form a hand. Although the game involves significant luck, it is primarily a competitive skill game and players with the best understanding of probability, psychology and game theory will have an edge over others. Players must find optimal frequencies & hand ranges to minimize losses with poor hands and maximize winnings with strong ones, as well as know when to raise in order to force weaker hands out of the pot.

Before the cards are dealt, players put an initial contribution into the pot, called an ante, in order to make it possible for other players to call (match) their bets. Players may also bluff by betting that they have the best hand while attempting to persuade players with superior hands to fold.

After antes are placed, each player is dealt five cards. The highest ranking hand wins the pot. If no one has a high enough hand, the remaining cards are revealed and the next betting interval begins.

The most common poker hands are a royal flush (Ace, King, Queen, Jack, and ten of the same suit), straight (5 consecutive cards of one rank), full house (3 matching cards of one rank, plus two matching cards of another rank), and pair (2 cards of one rank, plus 2 unmatched cards). The game was likely invented in the 16th century in Germany, and it became widely popular in the US in the nineteenth century. Von Neumann’s proof of the “theory of games” in 1905 opened the way to research into all manner of competitive interactions, including poker, submarine warfare and the evolutionary competition among species for space on Earth.