Poker is a card game for two to seven players, typically played with a 52 card deck. There are two personal cards in each player’s hand, and five community cards are dealt on the table for everyone to use. The highest hand wins the pot.

After the initial betting round, three new cards are put out on the table for everyone to see – these are known as the “flop”. Players can now check (make no bet), call, raise or fold. Your decision will depend on the strength of your starting hand, your position at the table and the actions of other players.

The first step to becoming a great poker player is learning the game basics. This can be done with a free poker app and some YouTube videos, or you can spend a little money on a poker course that teaches you the rules, full set of hand rankings, and bankroll management skills. A good poker coach can help you accelerate your learning curve, point out mistakes and give you a fresh perspective on the game.

Once you understand the fundamentals of the game it’s time to start playing for real money. While a large part of poker is luck, the decisions you make at the tables should be based on your understanding of probability, psychology and game theory. As you play more hands, the numbers will become ingrained in your brain and you’ll start to have an intuition for things like frequencies and EV estimation.