A set of official rules for poker, compiled and approved by the poker players’ association. These rules are generally the same as those used in the game’s cardrooms. They are usually adapted from earlier editions of Hoyle’s Rules. The rules are typically printed on the back of a poker chip. The game is played with a standard deck of 52 cards. Each player is dealt five cards. The game is a vying game, meaning that it involves betting amongst the players. A player who wins the most money in a hand takes the pot.

Although some absurd assertions have been made about the antiquity of poker, it is indisputable that it cannot be older than playing-cards themselves. The first positive evidence of these is from 13th century China, though there is arguable evidence for their invention a few centuries earlier. Despite a great deal of subsequent development, the basic structure of the game has remained unchanged.

In the 1830s, as poker spread westward along the Mississippi and northward into the frontier regions, it began to take on an anglicized name, and by the 1860s it had been transformed by the introduction of draw poker, which allowed each active player, in turn beginning with the player on the dealer’s left, to discard his original cards and receive replacements from the undealt portion of the pack. This greatly increased the range of possible combinations and led to a greater level of competitiveness and betting, resulting in a great increase in popularity.