Despite its name, poker is a game of chance. A group of people sit around a circular table and bet into a central pot. A hand that contains the best combination of cards wins the pot.

Poker is a card game that uses standard 52-card decks. Players may be dealt face-up or face-down.

Poker can be played in cash games and tournaments. The ante, or amount players must put into the pot, varies by game.

To determine what poker hand is best, players must evaluate each hand based on its visual and theoretical range. Taking the time to understand what range a hand is best in will help players win more hands.

Among the best natural hands are straight flushes. A straight flush is a hand containing 5 cards of the same suit. However, a straight flush ace is either high or low.

There are many variations of poker, including Hold’em, Stud Poker and Straight Poker. Despite the wide variety of games, the basic rules are the same.

The best poker hand is a five-card hand that contains the best combination of cards. This can include any of the following combinations: straight flush, straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, three of a kind, two pair, or one pair.

Some variant games have wild cards, or jokers. A wild card is a card that takes any suit.

A high card breaks a tie when multiple players have a high hand. For example, if two players have a four of a kind with the same rank, the high card breaks the tie.