Poker is a card game in which players make bets based on the strength of their hand. The player with the best five-card hand wins the pot, or all of the money placed as buy-ins in that round. If no one has a good hand, there is often a draw in which the players share the money. There are also rules for how to handle side pots, where players can win small amounts if they call certain bets.
A key part of the game is bluffing, and poker has become well known for its reliance on this element. Professional poker players are skilled at extracting information from multiple channels and integrating that to both exploit their opponents and protect themselves. They are experts at reading their opponents’ cues, including their body language and other non-verbal signals. They also have an excellent understanding of the underlying mathematical models that underlie poker strategy, and they use these insights to improve their chances of winning.
As a social game, poker has grown in popularity throughout the world, and it is now played in most countries that have legalized gambling. It is not unusual for a player to spend hours at the poker table, and it can be an expensive hobby. A number of online poker sites and brick-and-mortar casinos have developed around the game. There are also poker tournaments with large prize pools and television coverage. Despite the popularity of these events, most people do not play poker for money, but rather for the social aspect of it.