Poker is a card game of skill, strategy and luck. It is traditionally played with a minimum of two players and can be either cash or tournament play. While there are countless variants of the game, most share some common rules. The objective of a hand is to win by having the highest ranked set of cards at the end of the betting phase. Players may also bluff during the course of a hand, attempting to fool other players into believing they have a superior hand when they actually do not. The player who wins the hand takes all of the bets placed during that round.
In most Poker games, the first player to act places a bet (or raises the previous bet). The action continues in clockwise order until every player has folded or called a bet. Players with superior hands place bets to force weaker hands out of the hand, thereby raising the overall value of the pot.
Some Poker games require a blind bet, which is made by the players before they are dealt their cards. A player may call the blind bet, raise it or check (place no bet).
It is customary to place a maximum limit on a raise. This is often based on the amount of chips in the pot at the time that the raise is made. Some Poker games also have a “pot-limit” rule that allows a player to raise by no more than the amount that would be required to call the raised bet.