Poker is a card game in which players independently try to assemble the most valuable hand of cards. It is traditionally played for cash or poker chips. It is one of the most popular card games in the world. Poker has many variants, but most have the same core elements. It is a game of skill, but chance can also play a factor.

The goal is to extract maximum value from winning hands and minimise losses from losing ones, this is known as MinMax. Expert players are skilled at extracting information from multiple channels, including hidden cards, betting behavior and social cues. They use this knowledge to exploit their opponents and protect themselves. Online poker eliminates the advantage of in-person knowledge and therefore requires even more skill. However, experts can compensate for this by building behavioral dossiers on their opponents and gaining insights from televised hands.

In a round of poker, each player contributes a sum of money (the pot) to the pot, called the buy-in. The winner of a round is the player with the best five-card hand. Sometimes there is a tie among the best hands, in which case the winners share the pot. It is often agreed before the start of a tournament that all money that remains in the pot at the end of a round will be shared by the players who contributed to it.

In addition to the main pot, there may be side pots. This is common for poker tournaments with a large number of players.