A game of poker is played with a standard deck of 52 cards, featuring four suits: hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades. The cards are typically printed with colorful illustrations and designs. The game can be played for fun, or professionally for thousands of dollars in a casino poker room.

A player may call a bet, raise it, or fold his or her hand. The highest hand wins the pot. Players can also place chips in the center of the table that represent their wagers. The house may regulate the betting amounts and rules of a game, but it is common for players to establish their own limits.

In stud games, a player is dealt two cards face down, known as hole cards, while five community cards are dealt in stages: three cards (the flop), an additional card (“the turn” or “fourth street”), and a final card (the river” or “fifth street”). Each player aims to make the best poker hand from his or her own two hole cards combined with the five community cards.

The game of poker has many variants, including stud and draw. The most popular form of poker today is Texas hold ’em, which replaced seven-card stud in the U.S. in the 2000s, largely due to its exposure on television and the Internet.

There are many books on the subject of poker strategy. Probably the most influential work was Doyle Brunson’s book Super/System, published in 1978, which revolutionized poker strategy and brought Texas hold ’em to a wider audience. In 1983 Al Alvarez published The Biggest Game in Town, a book that was credited with beginning the genre of poker literature and describing a 1981 World Series of Poker event.