Poker is a card game that requires luck and skill to win. There are many different variations of poker, but they all share some similarities. In poker you have a winning hand and losing hands, and the goal is to extract as much value from your winning hands while minimising losses on your losing hands. This is known as min-maxing.
Players place bets on their hands before they are dealt. They then use their two personal cards and the community cards to build a five-card poker hand. Depending on the rules of your game, you can also draw replacement cards.
After the initial betting phase (pre-flop) has passed, three cards are dealt face-up on the table. These are called the flop and they form the community cards. They can be used by all players to make their best poker hand. A winning hand includes 5 cards of the same rank or consecutive ranks (a straight) and 3 unmatched cards (a flush).
If you have a good poker strategy, you should be able to minimise your losses on your weaker hands. You can do this by making small bets with strong hands and forcing weaker players to fold, or you can try to beat them by bluffing. Regardless of your strategy, you will have bad beats, but that is part of the game. The best poker players never let a bad beat crush their confidence and they focus on improving their game the next time around.