Poker is a card game in which players wager money or chips on the outcome of a hand. It requires not only a high degree of skill, but also considerable luck. It may be played for social stakes (a few pennies or matchsticks) or professionally for thousands of dollars. Despite the many variations, most games have similar underlying rules.
There are a number of different ways to score a hand, but all official poker games use a standard 52-card deck and the following betting structures:
The game is almost always played with chips. Usually, each player buys in for a set amount of chips. A white chip is worth the minimum ante or bet; a red chip is worth five whites; and a blue chip is worth 10 or 20 whites, or two, four or five reds. During a deal, the previous dealer assembles all of the cards from the pack he dealt, shuffles them, and prepares them for the next player.
Any player who has been a legal part of the action can ask to see any called hands that have not yet been mucked. However, this privilege should not be abused as it may result in the dealer refusing to allow the player to see their hand.
In addition to the above, a few other game-specific rules are in place for some official poker games. For example, in stud games, suit is used to break ties in the case of a tie for the low or the high hand.