The card game of poker has many different variations. In most games the players place an initial amount of money into a pot, called an ante or blinds, before the cards are dealt. Depending on the rules of the game, this is followed by one or more betting phases. After the players have a good hand, they reveal it and the player with the highest hand wins the pot.

Once everyone has two cards, the first player to the left of the dealer begins betting by saying “call” or “I call.” This means they want to match the amount of the last bet or raise it a little bit higher. Players can also say “check” which means they do not want to bet on their hand. If a player does not have enough chips to call the current stake, they must fold their hand.

Each player then has the opportunity to make their best 5-card hand out of the seven they have been dealt. The cards are divided into categories, and any hand of a certain category is stronger than a hand in a lower category. For example, a full house is made up of 3 matching cards of 1 rank and 2 matching cards of another rank. A flush is 5 consecutive cards of the same suit. A straight is 5 cards that skip around in rank but are all from the same suit. A pair is 2 matching cards of 1 rank and an additional unmatched card.