Poker is a card game where players place chips or cash into a pot when it’s their turn to act. This is called calling. The winner of the hand wins all of the money in the pot and is declared the winner. There are many rules and variations of the game. It’s important to learn the basics first before moving on to more advanced strategies.

The first step to becoming a good poker player is understanding how to read the other players at the table. This includes paying attention to the way they bet and what type of hands they play. It’s also important to know how to fold when you have a weak hand. Good players know when they’re beaten and they’ll lay down their cards rather than try to battle for the pot.

Once the cards are dealt there’s a round of betting that begins with the player on the left of the dealer. This is done to make sure that the players are putting in some forced bets (the blinds) into the pot to encourage them to play the hand.

After the flop is dealt there’s another round of betting that starts with the player on the right of the dealer. This is to ensure that the players have a strong enough hand to call if they’re holding a decent one.

Once you’ve got the basic preflop strategy down pat you can move on to studying cbetting and ranges. This is the level of math that advanced poker players work with to figure out how likely it is they’ll win a particular hand.