Poker is the most popular of a class of card games called vying games, where players with fully or partially made cards make wagers into a common pool, which is awarded to the player (s) with the best combination of cards.
There is no one version of poker; there exist many variations. All the poker versions are generally played with a standard deck of 52 cards. A standard deck consists of 13 different ranks of cards, and they are: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 and 2. All of these cards come in 4 different suits : Clubs, hearts, Diamonds, and Spades.
Poker games involve rounds of betting into a common pool, or "" pot "", and rounds of replacing / receiving cards. The number of betting rounds and card draws depends on the particular variation of the game being played. Play is connected in a clockwise direction.
The cards used in poker can be suit (spades, hearts, clubs and diamonds) and rank (two through Ace) in attribute.
Players either ante, that is put a stake into the pool before receiving a hand or before receiving new cards, or make blind bets into the community pot. At the end of a round of betting, all the players must have contributed to the pot equally. When it is a player's turn to act, they can check, call, bet or raise, or fold.
In case of check, if there is no bet already on the table, the player may in essence bet 0, and pass the action on to the next player.
Call means if there is a bet on the table, the player may choose to match the bet.
In case of bet or raise, if there were no bets on the table, the player places one by betting. If there was a bet on the table, the player may increase the bet by raising it.
By folding, the player does not choose to match the bet on the table, and forfeits any chance at winning the pot. The player also surrenders their cards.
The betting round comes to an end when each and every player has contributed to the pot equally. Then the next card action takes place, and that action depends on the version of poker being played. Either additional cards are canceled to each player, or in the middle of the table called the "board", or players are given an option to discard and redraw new cards.
Depending on the game, card actions and betting rounds alternate a prefixed number of times.