Poker is a card game that involves betting between players. Each hand contains five cards. The value of a hand is in inverse proportion to its mathematical frequency, the more unusual the combination of cards the higher the hand ranks. Players may bet that they have a good hand and force other players to call their bets, or they can bluff to win the pot without having a strong hand.
As you practice your poker skills, the concepts of frequencies and EV estimation will begin to feel natural to you. You will develop an intuition for these, which can help you make more educated guesses about what your opponents are holding.
One of the most important things you can do as a new player is to learn to read the table. You will need to be able to tell what other players are likely holding, based on the board and their position at the table. This will allow you to make better decisions about whether or not to raise your bets when your opponent does something unexpected. This will also make it easier to determine the odds of a certain hand, such as a full house or straight.