Poker is a family of card games that are played by making bets and wagers on the outcome of a hand. The bets are typically made using plastic chips, ceramic chips, or a combination of the two.

Before the cards are dealt, each player makes a small ante. This amount is equal to the cost of calling a bet. If the ante is not paid, the hand will not be dealt.

After the cards are shuffled, they are dealt to players in clockwise order. Each player may receive a single card or several cards, depending on the game. For example, in a three-card brag, each player may be dealt three cards.

The earliest form of poker was played with a 20-card deck. After the American Civil War, the full 52-card English deck was introduced. The earliest forms of poker are believed to have been derived from a Persian game known as as nas.

Poker is a highly regarded worldwide pastime. It has been compared to other games like French brelan, and it shares ancestry with the German pochen. There are hundreds of variations of the game. While they all share similarities, they are all unique in their own ways.

One of the main features of poker is bluffing. In this game, players use their own psychology to choose their actions. The best hand is typically the one that contains the lowest number of cards. However, the game does not consider straights, flushes, and other types of hands.