Poker is a card game in which players wager money with the aim of making the best possible five-card hand. There is a certain amount of luck involved, but bluffing is also an important part of the game. The most skillful players minimize their losses with bad hands and maximize their wins with good ones.

The rules of poker vary depending on the game, but most involve a dealer and one or more betting intervals in which raises are permitted. In tournaments, the right to deal a hand rotates among the players and is marked by a token called the button. This button determines the player’s position in the betting order.

Before the cards are dealt, each player puts a nominal contribution to the pot, or an ante, to start the betting. This may be done in a variety of ways, but it is usually agreed by the players that any chips in the pot belong to all players equally. Players who want more than their share of the chips can purchase additional chips from the banker, who keeps track of how many chips each player has received and how much they have paid for them.

In some games, the players agree to establish a special fund, or kitty, for the purpose of paying for new decks of cards and food and drinks. This is often done by “cutting” a single low-denomination chip from each pot in which there has been more than one raise. Any chips in the kitty belonging to players who leave the game before it ends are returned to them.