Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, Poker can be a fun and lucrative pastime. But to play well you need to develop good instincts. That means learning to read other players and their tells, and observing how they react to various situations.
Before being dealt cards, each player must make a forced bet, called an ante or blind bet (the amount varies by game). After the cards are shuffled and cut by the player on their right, they are dealt one at a time, starting with the player to their left. The dealer may deal them face-up or face-down, and some games allow players to draw replacement cards from an undealt portion of the deck between deals.
After each player receives their 2 hole cards, there is a round of betting, which starts with the player on the player’s left. After this, 1 more card is dealt, which is known as the flop. Then there is another round of betting.
After the betting, the best 5-card hand wins the pot. The winning player collects all the money put into the pot by the other players. Sometimes there is a tie, in which case the pot is split amongst all the players with a winning hand. Usually, players leave the table when they’ve won all the money in the pot or when they run out of money. However, they can also choose to return later and continue playing the same game with the same players.