Poker is the collective name for a family of gambling games played with a deck of cards, where players have certain combinations of cards given to them as hidden information, upon which the players start betting on their own chance of winning. At the end of a round, the combinations are revealed, and the owner of the strongest combination wins all bets made that round.
The games share the following elements:
The game is a gambling game. Each player arrives with an amount of items to gamble with, such that the items have a direct comparable value within the context of the game. Typically these items are small, flat plastic cylinders representing real world currency, known as “chips”.
The game is played with a deck of cards, where different combinations of cards have different values.
Each player has one combination of cards which belongs to them, given as hidden information. This combination may change throughout play, but often remains static.
A round begins by players being given a combination, after which players begin betting on their own chances of having the most valuable combination. Players are allowed to exit the betting phase, often by forfeiting their existing bet.
Once betting ends, all combinations are revealed, and the player with the most valuable combination wins all existing bets, or “the pot”.
There are many different variants of poker with wildly different rules, (such as Strip Poker where the items brought are not chips but clothes,) but the most popular variant is Texas Hold ‘em.