Poker is a card game in which players place bets before they see their cards. The player with the best hand wins. The game has possible roots in 10th-century Chinese domino games and 16th-century French gaming, but it grew in popularity in the early 19th century around New Orleans (with Mississippi riverboats providing strong cultural influence).
Each round of betting begins with one player placing a bet of one or more chips into the pot. Players to the left may either call that bet by putting into the pot the same amount of chips as the player before them, raise the bet by adding more than the previous player did, or drop out of the hand by not calling any of the remaining betting. A player who drops their hand forfeits any chips they have placed into the pot, and is out of the next deal until another player takes their spot.
Once you understand the basic rules of poker, it’s time to learn how to read a board. A good starting point is to try to guess what each player’s hand might be based on their betting patterns. This will help you to recognize what hands are strong and which ones are weak, so that you can fold when your odds of winning are low.
You should also take a moment to study the chart of what hands beat what. Knowing that a flush beats three of a kind and a straight beats two pair will give you an edge in the game.