A good poker player must know the basic rules of the game, and also must be able to read other players. He must be able to tell when his opponents are trying to trap him and when they just have poor hands. Reading other players is a learned skill that can be developed by playing with experienced players, watching them play, and learning how they act and react to different situations. The top players are able to calculate pot odds and percentages very quickly, and they know how to spot tells in their opponents’ faces, body language, and how they handle their chips and cards.
A poker hand consists of any five cards of the same suit, or a three of a kind and two pairs. If there are multiple hands with the same rank of pair, then the highest card breaks ties. A flush consists of five consecutive cards of the same suit, while a straight consists of 5 cards that skip around in rank or sequence, but are from the same suit.
If you call a raise, then you have to put in the amount that your opponent raised (plus any amount that was previously in the pot). If you want to stay in the pot for longer than this, you can call additional raises and add more money to the pot each time. This is called “equalizing” your stake. If you cannot equalize the stake of the last raiser, then you must fold.