Poker is a card game played in different variants, but all of them involve betting on a hand. In addition, most poker games use chips. In most of them, one white chip is worth the minimum ante or bet; a red chip is worth five whites; and a blue chip is worth 10 or 20 whites. There are also special colored chips that represent high bets.

If a player has a strong hand, she may want to try to force other players to call or raise her bet. She can do this by using a technique called slow-playing. This involves betting a low amount early on in a hand to encourage players with weaker hands to call and raise the payout.

The strongest hand is a royal flush, which consists of a 10, Jack, Queen, or King of the same suit in sequence (clubs, diamonds, hearts, or spades). A straight flush contains five consecutive cards of the same suit, and four of a kind is three cards of the same rank with an unmatched fifth card. A pair is two distinct cards, and the highest pair wins ties.

The players may also set aside a fund of low-denomination chips to pay for things like new decks of cards and food. This is often referred to as the “kitty.” The kitty is built up by cutting one low-denomination chip from each pot in which there has been more than one raise. The chips in the kitty belong to all of the players equally and are used for whatever the group decides, whether it be paying for the next round or buying food and drinks.