Poker is a card game for up to seven players, played with chips representing money. The player with the highest hand wins the pot. In addition to skill, winning requires luck and knowledge of opponent’s actions, which may be discerned through “tells.” A tell is an unconscious habit that gives away information about a player’s hand. Common physical tells include eye contact and facial expressions. A good poker player is able to read his opponent’s tells and make long-term profitable decisions based on probability and psychology.

The rules of Poker differ from variant to variant, but most involve one or more betting intervals during which one player has the privilege or obligation to place chips in the pot (representing a contribution to the pool of bets) at least equal to the amount raised by the player before him. Other than these forced bets, all bets are placed voluntarily by players who believe the bets have positive expected value or by those who want to bluff other players for various strategic reasons.

A player wishing to stay in the pot must raise his stake to at least match the total staked by the last active player and may also raise it further, but if he cannot or will not do either, he must fold.

A tournament is a competition with many matches, each with a small number of competitors (usually two). Tournaments are common in team and racket sports, combat sports, board games, card games, and competitive debating.