Poker is a card game in which players compete to make the best five-card hand. The player with the highest hand wins the pot. There are many variants of the game, but they all have the same basic rules. The game is played in a betting circle, with each player making a mandatory bet before the dealer deals the cards. A player may replace any number of the cards in his hand with new ones from the top of the deck. This process is known as “advancement.”

A good poker story is about the characters’ emotions and reactions to the cards that are played. It’s not easy to describe the sequence of card draws, bets, calls and reveals without it feeling lame or gimmicky. The trick is to focus most of your description on the human aspects of the game, such as who flinched, smiled, or shook their head.

Some players try to conceal the strength of their hands by slowplaying. This means playing their strong value hands in a more passive manner, checking and calling instead of raising. This can be effective against overly aggressive players who like to bluff, but it’s usually better to just play your strong hands as straightforwardly as possible and punish your opponents’ mistakes.

A full house is 3 matching cards of one rank and 2 matching cards of another, while a straight contains 5 consecutive cards of the same suit. A pair contains two cards of the same rank, while three of a kind is made up of 3 matching cards of one rank and 2 unmatched cards.