Poker is a card game in which players place bets into a pot in the center of the table. The highest hand wins the pot. The game is played with a standard 52-card deck, sometimes with extra cards called jokers. Some games also add special rules and variations of the basic game.
In most poker games, players must ante something (the amount varies by game). Once everyone has their cards, they bet into the pot in turn. If someone raises the bet before you, you can choose to call by saying “call” or “I call”.
The earliest known reference to Poker is in J. Hildreth’s Dragoon Campaigns to the Rocky Mountains, published in 1836; but two slightly later publications independently show that the game was well established by 1829: Jonathan H. Green, in Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling (1843); and Joe Cowell, in Thirty Years Passed Among the Players in England and America (1844).
Depending on the game, some bets are mandatory (called blind bets). These must be made before the players receive their cards. If the player cannot make the required bet, they must fold. In addition to the mandatory bets, some games have optional bets that players can raise or call. Some players are designated dealer/button, and this role is passed around the table in clockwise order each round. In some cases, a non-player may be given dealer responsibilities for the entire game. In this case, they will often have a special dealer chip which is passed on to a different player after each round.