Poker is a card game where the object is to form the best possible hand based on the cards you have. You win the pot (all of the bets made during a hand) when you have the highest ranking hand at the end of the betting round.

The foundation of a good poker strategy is understanding how to read other players. Look for tells, like nervous habits or fiddling with chips, to understand how a player is feeling. Practice playing with experienced players to learn how to observe these habits and develop your own poker instincts.

Another important part of poker is knowing the basic rules. You need to understand hand rankings, the basics of positions, and how the betting system works. Once you have these fundamentals in place, you can start to build a more complex poker strategy.

During a betting interval, one player puts money into the pot and players can decide to call (match or increase a previous player’s bet), raise (bet a higher amount than a previous player), or fold. In the latter two cases, you turn your cards face down to avoid giving other players any clues about your hand.

To be successful at poker, you must also master the art of deception. If your opponents always know what you have, then your strong hands won’t pay off and your bluffs will never get through. This is why you should play a balanced style of poker and use a range of bluffs to keep your opponent guessing.