Poker is a card game that can be played with any number of players, although the optimal number is six or eight. The game’s winner is the player with the best poker hand. Poker hands are made up of five cards, which may be the five cards the player is dealt or the five cards the player has accumulated with community cards. Poker hands can also include a kicker, which is the highest card left in the deck. In a four-of-a-kind hand, the kicker would be the fifth card in the deck.
In each betting interval, the player must bet an equal amount of chips. This amount is called the pot, and the player who places their chips in the pot is said to be an active player. If the player does not put their chips into the pot, they are said to have folded. In some poker variants, only the player who has made the first bet is allowed to continue betting.
Typically, there are seven players at a table. The dealer is the person dealing the cards. In casual play, this position is rotated amongst the players. The dealer button is a white plastic disk that indicates the nominal dealer. The dealer controls the order of betting. The dealer will then deal the cards to the players clockwise around the table.