Poker is a card game with a lot of skill and psychology involved. It’s often considered a game of chance, but when you introduce betting into the mix it becomes much more of a game of strategy and risk assessment. Playing poker helps improve your working memory and also encourages you to be more flexible with decision making, which can help in everyday life.

It also teaches you to control your emotions and be more self-aware. This is because when you’re at the poker table you need to be able to read the moods of other players and suppress your own emotions. This is a crucial skill for life as it makes you better at communicating and understanding others.

To play Poker you need a standard 52-card English pack, which can be supplemented with wild cards (jokers) as appropriate for the game. The cards are ranked (highest to lowest) Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.

A pair of matching cards is the best poker hand. A flush is five consecutive cards of the same suit. A straight is five cards in order but they may not wrap around (A-K-Q-J-T). A full house is three matching cards of one rank and two matching cards of another rank. A high card breaks ties.