Poker is a card game of chance and skill. Although luck plays a significant role in any given hand, the long-run expected values of players are determined by their actions chosen on the basis of probability, psychology, and game theory.
In poker, the object is to form a five-card hand that beats all other hands. A poker hand consists of two personal cards dealt to each player plus the five community cards on the table. Depending on the rules of a particular poker game, players may also bet during betting rounds, and each player has the option to call, raise, or drop (fold). The winner of the pot is the player with the highest ranking hand.
During a poker betting round, each player puts chips into the pot equal to or greater than the amount bet by the previous player. If a player does not wish to call, they can instead drop out of the current betting round and forfeit their rights to any side pots.
Some poker players argue that poker is a pure game of chance, while others maintain that it is a game of skill and strategy. However, empirical studies of the game have shown that a combination of both luck and skill determines the outcome of a poker hand. A study of tournament data by Fiedler and Rock showed that the skill component of the game was greater than the random component, and a mathematical model of the game by Rock demonstrated that skilled players should win more often than luck alone would predict.
