Poker is a card game of chance and risk in which players bet chips and win or lose them. The game can be played with as few as two or as many as ten players. There are dozens of different variations of the game, but they all revolve around the same basic mechanics. Players start the game by “buying in” for a set amount of chips, which can range from one white chip to five red chips. Each player then receives cards that they keep hidden from the other players, and betting intervals (or “rounds”) are then triggered by each player calling the bet in some way. Players may also raise the bet by adding more chips to the pot, or they can “drop” their hand and leave the game altogether.
When a player has the best possible poker hand, they reveal it and take the whole pot of all bets. The winning player can be either the highest ranked hand or the last remaining player after all of the other players drop out of the game.
The key to writing an engaging poker scene is to focus less on the cards and more on the players’ reactions to them. The narrator should be able to show the reader how each player is feeling by describing their facial expressions and body language, including tells. This will allow the reader to connect with each character and feel what they are experiencing.