Poker is a card game played between two or more players and involving betting. The rules vary between different poker games. However, most involve dealing a number of cards to each player and a betting phase after each deal. The best hand wins the pot. Some poker variants require an initial amount of money to be placed into the pot before the cards are dealt; these are called forced bets and come in the form of antes, blinds, and bring-ins.
The basic strategy of the game is to play your strong value hands as straightforwardly as possible. Trying to outwit your opponents by slowplaying your hand or making them overthink and arrive at wrong conclusions is usually counterproductive, and will lead to them calling your bets more often than you would like.
You should also practice reading your opponents, especially in a live game. This means paying attention to how they hold and handle their chips, and observing their body language and facial expressions. You should also learn to spot tells, such as a player who always raises the pot when holding a weak hand.
Bluffing is an important part of the game, but as a beginner you should work on more basic strategies before getting into bluffing. The most important thing to keep in mind is to know what cards you need to make a winning hand and the probability of getting them. For example, if you need a spade and there are only 13 of them in the deck, then the odds of you getting one are very low.