Most poker games are played with a standard deck of 52 cards. During each round of poker, each player is dealt cards with which they make the best poker hand they can. Between being dealt cards and revealing the hands, there is at least one round of betting. Relying on just the hand, poker strategy and some luck, each player tries to win the pot.

At its heart, poker is a game of bluffing, betting, and building. You’ll try to construct specific card combinations (called hands) that outrank your opponents’, while keeping your cards close to your chest and bluffing about the strength of your hand to trick the other players, maximizing your chance of claiming the betting pot.

Read on to learn basic rules for the most popular poker games. Most poker games utilize the standard poker hand ranking system, so it's important to know which hand wins head to head when you turn your cards face up. Betting structures, like no-limit, pot-limit, and fixed-limit, can be applied to many different card games.