Poker is a card game with many different variations. Each has its own rules and hand rankings. However, the basic principles of poker remain the same. In each hand you place chips into a pot and the player with the best five-card poker hand wins the pot.
In most poker games players must first place a forced bet (the amount varies by game) into the pot before they can be dealt cards. This creates a pot right away and encourages people to play. Once everyone has placed their bets into the pot a round of betting begins.
After a player has a strong poker hand they may choose to raise or fold. If they raise their bet it means that they think their poker hand is good enough to win the pot. If they fold they give up the pot and their cards are returned to the dealer face down.
Once the betting round is complete the dealer will deal three more cards face up on the table called the flop. These are community cards that anyone can use. The next betting round starts again with the player to the left of the dealer.
You must remember that poker is not always about the strongest poker hand but rather about when to bluff and when to call. You can sometimes force weaker hands out of the pot with a strong bluff. If you have a pair of kings for example then it is usually worth calling the bet and putting the other players out of the game.