Official poker is a card game that involves betting. It is played with a standard pack of 52 cards, though some variant games may use more or less than the full deck. The standard ranks of cards are Ace, King, Queen, Jack and 10, with the highest ranked hand winning. Some poker games allow the addition of one or more jokers as wild cards.

A typical poker game is played with eight players. Each player is dealt two cards that they keep hidden from the other players, called their hole cards. These are combined with the community cards to form a player’s hand. Players then decide whether to check, call, raise or fold. Betting continues until all players have folded or raised at least once.

The rules of poker are set by the house or casino that is hosting the game. However, clubs and groups of poker players often establish their own “house rules” to suit their own preferences or local customs. These can vary from one game to another and should be written down.

The house or casino should have sufficient chips to allow each player to play a full game of poker, starting with an initial contribution to the pot called an ante. The chips should be marked for value: white chips are worth a specified number of white chips, red chips are worth five whites and blue chips are worth ten whites. The dealer should burn a card each round of dealing to make it harder for players to anticipate what cards are coming.