In poker, players place chips into a pot in turns. Each player must place at least as many chips into the pot as the player to their left. A player may also raise or fold their hand.
When it comes to poker strategy, the key is learning to read players and their tells. A player’s tells are the small, non-verbal tics that reveal their nervousness or strength. A common tell is a twitchy jaw or a hand on the chin, but other signs of nerves include shallow breathing, sighing, dilated pupils, a flushed face, nostrils flaring, eyes watering, or a mouth or throat that is visibly quivering.
Another element to learn is the game’s rules and hierarchy of hands. Each hand must contain at least one pair of cards of the same rank, or a flush. A straight contains five consecutive cards of the same suit. A full house is three cards of the same rank and two matching cards of another rank. Finally, a two-pair is two cards of the same rank and one unmatched card.
During the betting phase of each round, players must reveal their hand. A player who does not reveal his or her hand has no chance of winning the round.