Poker is a card game that involves betting and requires a fair amount of skill. While poker is largely a game of chance, the best players have several traits in common including patience, being able to calculate pot odds and percentages, and being able to read other players. In addition, successful poker players have a lot of mental toughness to deal with both bad beats and huge wins. Watch a few videos of Phil Ivey taking a beating, and you’ll get the idea.

Typically, 2 cards are dealt to each player, face down. Then the betting begins. You can call, raise or fold. Saying “call” means you want to make a bet equal to the last person’s bet, so you put $10 in the pot.

After the first round of betting is complete the dealer puts three more cards on the table that anyone can use (this is called the flop). Another betting round begins. Once the bets are all in, the players show their hands and the highest hand wins the pot.

There are many different variations of poker, but the basic rules are similar in all games. Once you have mastered the basics of poker, you can learn the more advanced strategies. The best way to learn poker is to join a poker training site that has structured courses, so you can focus on one subject at a time. This will give you a solid base and help you improve faster.