Players make forced bets called ante and blind bets to start the game. Once the betting rounds start, a dealer shuffles the cards and deals them to each player one at a time. Cards are dealt face-up or face-down, depending on the variation of the game. Poker hands form between betting rounds and are known as pots. The highest ranking hand wins the pot and all the bets. If there is no winning hand, all players’ chips are lost in the pot.

The names of the game are likely derivations of Frenchpoque and Germanpochen, but it is not known whether the game originated with those games. However, it is commonly believed that the game evolved from a Persian game called as nas, which was taught to the French settlers of New Orleans. The game is also considered to be of Renaissance origin and is believed to have shared ancestry with French primero and brelan. In addition, the English game brag clearly descended from brelan, and incorporates bluffing.

All poker money and chips are placed into a pot. If someone antes up and makes the first bet, they are automatically putting money into the pot. The winner of a poker game will win the pot’s value, and they take home the entire pot’s worth of cash. Moreover, there are pot limits, which limit how much can be bet. There is no way to predict which hand will win the pot, so it is important to understand the betting limits in each poker game.