Poker is a card game of strategy, risk and chance. It involves a combination of the cards you hold in your hand and those revealed to everyone else. The highest-ranking hand wins the pot of money. It can be tied if there are multiple hands with the same rank but different suits.
You must ante a certain amount to get dealt your cards (the amount varies by game). Then, you bet into the pot on your turn, in clockwise order. If you bet, the other players can “call” your bet or raise it if they wish to continue betting. If you fold, you put your cards into the dealer’s face-down to end the hand.
A good poker player develops a range of meta-skills to maximise their chances of winning. These skills are grouped into three categories: opportunities, strategy, and execution.
Successful poker players also develop a balance between love and fear. They want their opponents to love them, and hate to play against them. They can do this by playing a game of “goldilocks” with their opponents, where they play just enough to be loved, but not too much to be hated.
A good poker player is also able to assess the strength of their opponents’ hands and make intelligent bets. They can do this by reading the other players’ expressions and body language. They can also use their knowledge of probability to determine the probability that a given card will appear in their hand.