How to Make a Poker Scene Look Real

Poker is a card game with many variations, but all of them involve betting. A player’s hand consists of five cards. The highest hand is a royal flush, which consists of four matching cards of the same rank in a suit; the second highest hand is a straight, which consists of five consecutive cards of the same suit; and the lowest hand is a pair.

When playing poker, players place chips (representing money, for which poker is almost invariably played) into the pot, or center of the table. During each betting interval, one player designated by the rules of the particular poker variant is responsible for placing the first bet, and then every other player may call or raise this bet. A player who chooses to call must place enough chips into the pot to match or exceed the amount placed in it by the previous player.

A dealer (or a non-player) shuffles the deck and deals each player a number of cards, starting with the person to his left. In some games, each player has the responsibility of being the dealer for one round. In others, the dealer rotates. Usually, the dealer is assigned a dealer chip, which is passed to a new player after each round.

A good way to make a poker scene seem realistic is to include tells, unconscious habits that reveal information about a player’s hand. These can be as simple as a change in posture or facial expression.