Poker is a card game in which players turn over their cards face up and reveal their hands. Each player has the opportunity to win the pot if his hand beats the other players’ hands. Poker has a number of variations, including draw and stud. Each variant has its own unique rules. In the classic game, a player wins the pot if he has the highest hand, whereas in stud, a player must have a pair of aces in order to win the pot.

Typically, poker games are played with a standard deck of 52 cards, with some variations using more than one pack and adding jokers to the deck. In most games, the cards are ranked from Ace high to Ace low (with a high-five being higher than a low-five), and each hand contains five cards. In some games, there are also special wild cards, which may be any card in any suit.

The dealer is the person whose turn it is to deal cards. In ante poker, the player to the left of the dealer is the first to bet. The other players in the table then place their bets in the center of the table. Once all of the players have placed their bets, the dealer deals out the cards and shuffles the deck.

A player who is holding “nuts” has a pair of cards, which is the best possible hand at any given moment. This is a hand that has a better chance than the other players, but a player can still be dealt a pair of eights. This hand is called a “backdoor flush.”