Poker is a card game where players bet on the strength of their cards and their opponents’ actions. There are many different types of poker games, but Texas Hold ’Em is the one that most people think of when they hear the word “poker.” It’s the type played in the World Series of Poker and other shows on TV.
In most poker games, each player buys in with a certain amount of chips. The smallest chip is called a white, and each color is worth a different value. A white chip is worth one ante or bet; a red is worth five whites, and a blue is worth 10 whites. A player may call a bet, raise it, or fold.
When a player makes a bet, the players to his left must either call it, put in the same number of chips as the previous player, or raise it, putting more into the pot than the previous player did. A player who can’t raise the bet or doesn’t want to call it must fold, and loses all his chips that he had put in the pot.
Reading the tells of other players is a very important part of winning at poker. Typical tells include shallow breathing, sighing, flaring nostrils, blinking or swallowing excessively, and even blushing. These are all signs that the player is nervous and probably bluffing.