Poker is a card game for two to fourteen players, played with chips that represent money. It is a game of chance, but also involves skill and psychology. The objective is to win the “pot,” the sum of all bets made during a hand. This may be done by having the highest-ranking poker hand or by making a bet that no other player calls.

In most games, each player initially contributes an amount (typically a small fraction of a dollar, such as a dime) to the pot. Each player then gets two cards hidden from other players (called their hole or pocket). The player to the left of the big blind begins the betting phase by raising or calling.

During the betting phase, a third set of cards are dealt face-up in the center of the table (called the flop). These are community cards that any player may use to make a 5-card poker hand. The high poker hand (pair, three of a kind, flush, straight) wins the pot. In the event of ties, the highest unmatched cards break them.

Professional poker players are experts at extracting signal from noise in various channels, and using this information to both exploit opponents and protect themselves. For example, they know their opponent’s tendencies to call or raise bets when they have a strong hand. In addition, they can create behavioral dossiers on their opponents, which allow them to predict how other players will behave and what type of hands they will have.