As a card game poker is primarily a game of chance, but when you introduce betting the stakes come into play and the game becomes more of a game of skill and psychology.

During each betting round players have the option to check (pass on betting), raise (betting more chips into the pot) and call (matching the previous player’s bet). A player cannot increase the amount of money they are putting in the pot without also increasing the number of hands that they have in the showdown.

Once all the players have finished putting in their chips for a specific hand they then have to reveal their cards and the winner of the pot is declared. Depending on the rules of the game there may be one or more side pots, but if all players hold the same hand then the main pot will be awarded to the player with the highest ranking poker hand.

The most important thing to understand when playing poker is how to read your opponents. There are a lot of different playing styles, but you can often pick out the types of plays made by more experienced players – and if you can learn to read these then you can take advantage of them. A good way to improve your reading is to watch a few videos of professional players and study their behaviour. Look at how they play their strong hands and work out what types of bets they make and why.