Poker is a card game in which players place bets by placing chips into the pot. When a player makes a bet, the other players may “call” by putting in the same amount of chips as the previous bet; raise (put in more than the previous bet); or fold. If a player folds, they forfeit any chips they have placed into the pot, and are out of the hand until the next deal.
Unlike chess, where the information that a player has is known at the beginning of a hand, poker mimics real life in that resources are committed before the information becomes clear. A player must decide whether to call, raise, or fold based on their own assessment of the odds of making a strong poker hand. As more cards are dealt, the information will become clearer but no player has absolute command of all the facts until the hand is over.
The most successful poker players make decisions that are grounded in probability, psychology, and game theory, as well as a deep understanding of the game’s history. They must be disciplined to stick with best practices and be willing to re-evaluate their strategy on the fly, but they should never forget that poker is an art as well as a science. Just like in life, sometimes a person with the worst cards wins because of their tenacity and courage. The goal of poker is to have the strongest poker hand at the end of the hand.
