Poker is a card game in which you place bets to make your hand better. The best hand wins the pot.

Each betting round begins when one player – called the opener – makes a bet. Then each player in turn can choose to call (put the same amount of chips into the pot as the previous player) or raise it by adding more chips than their predecessor. They can also drop (“fold”) and not participate in that betting round.

Once the first betting round is over the dealer puts three cards face up on the table which everyone can use to form their hand. These are called the flop. Once the flop is dealt you can start betting again and the player with the highest hand wins the pot.

The top players fast-play their strong hands, which means they bet often to build the pot and chase off other players who may be waiting for a draw that beats their hand. They can do this because they have a good understanding of the frequency of the different possible hands that their opponent could hold.

Position is important as it gives you more information on your opponents and can help you to bluff. Players in late position will typically raise to “price” all of the worse hands out of the pot and prevent other players from calling their bets if they have strong hands. This is because a raised bet will generally have a much higher expected value than a flat bet.