Poker is a card game played in betting rounds, with players having the option to raise and re-raise bets. The object of the game is to make the best five-card hand possible. The cards are dealt in a clockwise fashion to each player, and the first player to act puts in an amount of money into the pot. After the players have all bet, their hands are revealed and the player with the highest-ranked hand wins.
Although poker is a game of chance, it also requires skill and psychology. A good understanding of your opponent’s table image, and when to bluff, is crucial to success in the game.
Most modern poker games are played with a standard 52-card pack, plus one or two jokers. For a game with seven or more players, it is customary to use poker chips. Typically, a white chip is worth the minimum ante or bet, and each color chip has a specific value. A blue chip, for example, is worth ten whites, while a red chip is worth twenty or more whites.
The earliest known reference to poker was in 1871, when Colonel Jacob Schenck, an American minister to Great Britain, described the game to Queen Victoria. He privately printed a set of rules to send her, and this is considered the earliest work exclusively about poker.