Poker is a card game in which players bet and raise money into a pot before showing their hands. The game has a number of benefits that can improve your mental health, including learning how to calculate probability and develop focus and discipline.

Poker can also teach you to take control of your emotions. This skill is valuable in the workplace and other areas of life. It allows you to make good decisions even when things are going poorly, and can help you keep your cool during stressful situations.

Another benefit of poker is that it can help you learn how to read your opponents and pick up tells. For example, a player who seems bored on the flop with his hands on his chin may suddenly sit up straight, focused, and bet big into you. This is a sign that you might have the best hand in the world, and it’s important to recognize these tells in order to maximize your winnings.

In poker, you can win the pot — the total amount of money bet during a round — by having the best hand at the showdown, when all players reveal their cards. To do this, you need to know when to fold and what bet size to make. There are a few rules of thumb, but in general you want to make small bets when you have weak cards and large bets when you have strong ones.