Poker is a card game where players compete to form the highest-ranking hand using their two cards and the five community cards on the table. The person who has the best hand wins the pot, which is the total amount of money raised during a betting round. A high-quality poker hand is made up of a combination of bluffing and folding to maximize the value of your cards.
To be successful, you need to learn how to read your opponents’ body language. This includes their tells, which are non-verbal signals such as fiddling with a ring or playing with their chips. A good understanding of your opponent’s tells will help you determine whether or not to call their raises and play aggressively yourself.
The best way to improve your poker game is to study past hands you’ve played and those of other players. Don’t just look at hands that went bad, though – study the hands you won as well to figure out what strategies worked for you and which ones didn’t.
One of the most important things you should do to increase your chances of winning is to avoid limping. Instead, you should usually either fold your hand if it isn’t strong enough or raise it to price the weaker hands out of the pot.
When you say “call” in poker, you are putting up the same amount as the last player to go to the next betting round. You can also raise if you think you have an outstanding hand and want to put more money in the pot than the other players.