Most variants of poker
satisfy the following definition, but in a home game of course you
are free to modify the rules as you see fit.
Poker is a card game in
which players bet into a communal pot during the course of a hand,
and in which the player holding the best hand at the end of the betting
wins the pot. During a given betting round, each remaining player in
turn may take one of four actions:
1. check, a bet
of zero that does not forfeit interest in the pot.
2. bet or raise,
a nonzero bet greater than preceding bets that all successive players
must match or exceed or else forfeit all interest in the pot
3. call, a nonzero
bet equal to a preceding bet that maintains a player's interest in
the pot
4. fold, a surrender
of interest in the pot in response to another player's bet, accompanied
by the loss of one's cards and previous bets
Betting usually proceeds
in a circle until each player has either called all bets or folded.
Different poker games have various numbers of betting rounds interspersed
with the receipt or replacement of cards.
Poker is usually played
with a standard 4-suit 52-card deck, but a joker or other wild cards
may be added. The ace normally plays high, but can sometimes play low,
as explained below. At the showdown, those players still remaining
compare their hands - the poker player with the highest ranking poker
hand wins the pot.
