Poker is a card game in which individuals compete for an amount of money contributed by the players themselves (the pot). This sum is not always available, but each player attempts to control it by minimising their losses with poor hands and maximising their winnings with good ones. The skill required to do this is called bluffing.

The game is played with a standard pack of 52 cards (some variant games use multiple packs or add a few jokers). There are four suits, but only the highest card wins; there are also different ranks of cards (Ace, King, Queen, Jack and 10), and different combinations of cards make up winning hands. Depending on the game, one or more of these cards may be wild, making them available for all players to use.

All players must use the same poker chip values in cash games, but different denominations are used for tournaments. This helps to prevent cash game players from sneaking tournament chips into their stacks. It’s also easier for the casino or establishment hosting the tournament to track the number of chips in each player’s stack.

When all betting in a hand is over, the remaining players expose their hole cards and the winner of the pot is determined. This is known as a showdown. Bob shows Q 9 for a three-of-a-kind, king-queen-jack kicker, which wins the $26 pot.