Poker is one of the world’s most popular card games, with millions of fans. The game is a classic example of decision-making under uncertainty, because you don’t know the cards your opponents are holding or what they will do with them. As a result, it is a good way to improve your decision-making skills, and learn about probability and statistics.

The earliest contemporary references to the game of poker were published in 1836, in J. Hildreth’s Dragoon Campaigns to the Rocky Mountains, and in Joseph Cowell’s reminiscences of his time in England and America (1829). Both authors mention a game played with five cards per player from a 20-card pack, and betting on the most valuable hand.

There are a variety of different types of poker, but most involve players putting down a small amount of money (the buy-in) before being dealt cards. The highest hand wins the pot, which is all the money that was placed as bets. If there is no high hand, all the players share the pot equally.

To be a good poker player, you need to understand the rules of the game well and have excellent bluffing skills. It is also important to be able to read your opponents’ tells, the unconscious habits that reveal information about their hands. A good poker book will contain both theory and practical examples of how to play the game. It will also discuss the different poker variants and strategies, as well as some of the famous tells that poker players use to identify each other’s bluffs.