A poker game involves betting and putting chips into a pot when you have a good hand. The highest hand wins the pot. Each player antes something (the amount varies by game) and then the dealer shuffles the cards. The players on the chairs to the left of the dealer each make a forced bet, called an ante or blind bet. After this the cards are dealt, either face up or down depending on the game. The players can then check (pass on their turn to act), call a bet made by another player, raise or fold.

To win at poker you need to know how to read your opponents, and this means paying attention to the way they hold their cards, their body language and how long it takes them to make a decision. You also need to be able to adapt to the situation at hand. If you’re playing in a fast-paced cash game where people are often bluffing, you need to be able to call their bluffs if you think they’re weak.

The main thing that makes games like poker interesting is the people who play them and their reactions to each other. Describing a series of card draws, bets, checks and reveals is not going to be very engaging for most readers. So try to focus most of your writing on the by-play at the table: who flinched when someone called their bluff, who smiled at the pot odds, etc.