Poker is more than just a game — it also helps you build a number of important life skills. Whether you play it for fun at home with friends or make it your career, the game requires a lot of critical thinking and problem-solving skills. In addition, you need to be able to read other players in the game and pick up on tells. Poker also requires a high level of concentration, which can improve your focus in other areas of your life.

Once all players have 2 hole cards, a betting interval (called a round) starts, and each player must put chips into the pot to stay in the hand. You can either “call” that bet by putting in the same amount as your opponent, raise it, or drop, which means you put no chips into the pot and discard your card(s).

After the flop, another card is revealed. This is called the turn, and there is another betting round. Finally, the river is dealt, and there is another betting round.

A royal flush is 5 matching cards of the same rank, a straight contains 5 cards that are consecutive but not in a suit, a three of a kind is 3 cards of the same rank, and two pair is two pairs of cards of different ranks with one unmatched card. The best poker hands win the pot, or the money collected from everyone else in the hand.