Poker is a card game where players compete to win a pot, which contains all bets made during a hand. The goal is to have a better hand than your opponents, or to trick them into believing you have a good hand when you don’t (bluffing).

The cards in a standard poker deck are numbered from 1 through 10, with Ace being high and Jack being low. There are four suits: hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades, with each suit having a different value. In some poker games, there are wild cards which can substitute for any other card in a hand.

Each player starts by putting in an amount of money, called the ante, before betting begins. Once the bets begin, each player can choose to raise them or fold. A player who raises can continue raising in a clockwise direction until everyone else calls or checks.

If you have a strong hand, it is usually worth raising to price out weaker hands and build the size of your pot. However, if you don’t have a strong hand, it is often best to fold rather than continue betting money at a losing position.

The flop is a crucial part of a poker hand, as it can completely change the strength of your holdings. For example, if you have pocket 7’s and the flop comes up J-J-5, you will no longer be in the best possible position, as someone else now has three of the same cards. If you raise at this point, you will be pricing out the other players with potential straights and flushes, which will increase the value of your pot.

Knowing when to raise and when to fold is one of the most important aspects of poker, but you also need to be able to read your opponents. Top players often fast-play their strong hands, which means they’re not afraid to put a lot of money into the pot early in order to build up the size and strength of their hand, and potentially chase off other players who are waiting for a draw that will beat them.

It’s important to keep in mind that, especially at lower stakes, your opponent will often be much tighter than you expect. Therefore, you should always play a more aggressive style of poker at these stakes in order to maximize your chances of making a deep run. Only once you reach a higher level of competition, and have been playing for some time, should you consider taking a more survival-oriented approach.