Official poker is a game of cards, usually played by a team of people. It is one of the most popular games in casinos and is also commonly played at home, for small amounts or thousands of dollars.

The game is governed by rules that have been developed and agreed to by the players. These rules have been compiled into a book that is widely available and is used by many cardrooms around the world, including online ones.

When playing a game of poker, you have a certain amount of time to decide what you want to do next. You can either “call” a player’s bet, which means you’ll match it or “fold” if you don’t want to do that.

Saying “raise” if you want to add more money to the betting pool is an important way to increase your chances of winning the hand. Other players will go around in a circle and choose to “call” your new bet or fold.

You’ll also need to know how to stack your poker chips. The typical poker chip set includes whites, reds, blues and greens, with higher stakes games using more colorful sets.

A key strategy for tournament players is to stack their poker chips by color value, which is necessary for calculating odds and making betting decisions.

There are two basic ways to play poker: Cash games and tournaments.

A poker tournament is a special type of poker where a limited number of players get paid, with a smaller percentage receiving no money at all. There are several variations of this game, but a standard play involves entrants “buying in” for a fixed amount of money and play continuing until one player accumulates all the chips or a deal is made among the remaining players to redistribute the prize pool.