Poker is a card game in which players compete for an amount of money or chips contributed by each player (called the pot). Individuals attempt to control the amount of money in the pot by minimizing their losses with poor hands and by making maximum winning bets with good ones. A major element of the game is bluffing.

The person responsible for dealing each player’s cards and managing the pot and bets during a hand is known as the poker dealer. Whether this responsibility rotates among players at home games or is given to a stand-alone person (such as the poker dealers at casino tables and cardrooms) it is an important one in order to make gameplay run smoothly from one hand to the next.

In most poker games, the standard 52-card pack is used. However, a two-pack deal may be employed to speed up the process: while the first pack is being dealt, the second deck is reshuffled and prepared for the next round of betting.

It is also the poker dealer’s responsibility to manage where the action is during the different betting rounds and ensure that bet sizes are accurately announced (i.e., if someone says “$35,” the dealer should confirm that this is the case and that each subsequent caller matches their contribution in terms of white chips). Additionally, the poker dealer must enforce rules regarding protecting players’ cards by keeping them out of view when not in use and by not discussing them with other players.