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The game of poker involves betting between two players and a group of cards. The player who has the highest ranked hand wins the pot, including any bets placed during the round. There are several rounds of betting and the cards may be dealt face up or face down, depending on the variant being played.

The first step in learning poker is to decide how much you want to bet each time. A general rule is to play only with the amount of money that you are willing to lose in a single hand. This will help you avoid gambling more than your bankroll allows and build up a natural intuition for things like frequencies and expected value (EV) estimation.

After the initial forced bets are made, each player is dealt five or seven cards (depending on the specific Stud sub-variant being played). Some of these cards are visible to other players and others remain hidden. Players can fold, call, or raise in each betting round, and the winner of a hand is determined when all players reveal their cards at a showdown.

During a betting round, each player can call the amount of chips that was bet in the previous betting interval or raise by adding more chips to the bet. If a player does not call, they must drop their hand and discard any chips in the pot that they have already put in. This is called folding and is a key part of poker strategy.