When more than one player remains in the game, a poker showdown occurs. The players reveal their cards and evaluate the value of their hands. The player with the highest hand wins the pot. Poker hands are composed of five cards. They are ranked by the highest card in a five-card combination, which can be either a straight flush, four of a kind, or a flush. Unlike other games, the highest card does not always win the game.
In almost all games of poker, chips are used. The lowest-value chip is a white one, followed by a red chip and blue chip. A blue chip is worth two, four, or five reds, and a black chip is worth ten, twenty, or fifty whites. Players “buy in” to a game by purchasing chips. Players typically buy in for the same amount of chips. Depending on the type of game being played, different players may receive equal amounts of chips.
In most types of poker, players make forced bets at the beginning of the hand (the ante) or blind bet. The dealer then shuffles or cuts the cards and deals them to players one by one. The cards are dealt face up or face down depending on the type of game. In between rounds, the players develop poker hands. The players whose hands are higher than the dealer’s are deemed the winner. In addition, the dealer decides whether a player makes the blind bets.