The game of Poker is a card game that can be played by two or more players. The object of the game is to win a pot, or sum of all bets made during one deal. This may be achieved by having the highest-ranking poker hand, or by betting enough that other players will fold.
There are many different poker games, but most of them share certain fundamentals. First, the players place an ante into the pot. Then they are dealt five cards, which they must use to create a poker hand. Players can then decide to discard some or all of their cards and continue betting.
In most poker games, players can also make additional bets on their own hands after the flop by saying “raise.” A raise is an increase in the amount of money a player is willing to bet. The other players must call the new bet or fold.
Poker’s most immediate ancestor is probably Poque (French, under various spellings, 16th century – present), which developed from the German bluffing game Pochen. Poque was brought to America by French immigrants and became popular on the riverboats that plied the Mississippi. Poker first appeared in the 1845 edition of Hoyle’s Games as “Poker or Bluff,” and it became a well-known game in the nineteenth century. A variety of other vying games existed prior to this, however, and none of them bear much resemblance to Poker. Some of them are mentioned in Hoyle’s, including Belle, Flux & Trente-un (French, 17th – 18th centuries), Post & Pair (English, 18th – 19th centuries), and Brag (18th century to present). These earlier games generally involved three to five cards.