Poker is a card game that involves betting between players. The goal of the game is to form a winning hand based on the rankings of cards in order to claim the pot at the end of each betting round.

Each player buys in with a set number of chips. White chips are usually worth the minimum ante or bet, red chips are worth five whites, and blue chips are worth 10 or 20 whites. After a player has bought in, the dealer shuffles the cards and deals them out to each player one at a time. Once everyone has their cards, the first betting round begins.

Players may call a bet by putting into the pot the same amount as the player to their left, raise it (put in more than the player to their left), or drop out of the hand. If a player drops out, they forfeit any chips that they put into the pot.

In this way, the game of Poker is an inherently risky endeavor. There are both winning hands and losing hands, but the best players minimize their losses by extracting the most value from their winning hands and bluffing their opponents off of their own good hands. This strategy is called MinMax.

Advanced players also pay attention to their opponent’s range of hands, which means they try to determine what their opponent is likely holding in a given situation. This helps them make the correct bet size and exploit errors made by beginner players.