Poker is a card game played between individuals for an amount of money or chips contributed by all players (called the pot). Individuals compete to control the amount in the pot based on their own hand and their predictions as to what their opponents may do. Players can fold, call, or raise. In most games, there are five cards in each hand and the highest hand wins.
Poker is normally played from a standard 52-card pack, which includes two jokers for use in certain games. The standard suits are spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs, but some games also include wild cards of a particular rank or suit (such as dueces or one-eyed jacks).
A dealer deals each player a number of cards face down, after which they can check their own cards, and then make calls or raise their own bets. A player cannot look at an opponent’s cards without breaking poker rules, although peeking is common practice and generally considered to be bad gamesmanship.
There has been considerable interest in establishing an official set of poker rules for the game worldwide, which would avoid many of the disputes that arise in casinos and poker tournaments. This is the aim of the FIDPA, which was founded in 2008. This set of 81 rules is available for free download on their website. Anyone is welcome to use them in their establishment or poker game, as long as it is not for profit and the name of the rulebook is credited.