Poker is a card game that involves betting on the value of a hand. It is played in rounds and players may raise the amount of their bets or fold. The player with the highest ranked hand when the cards are revealed wins the pot, which is all the money that has been bet in that round.
There are a number of different poker variants. Some are more common than others, but all require skill and strategy to win. A good writer should know the rules of these variants and be able to determine how aggressive or conservative a player is from their betting patterns. A conservative player will often avoid raising the amount of their bet and can therefore be easily bluffed into folding. Aggressive players, on the other hand, will bet high early in a hand and can sometimes be bluffed into raising even more.
When writing a poker scene it is important to remember that the majority of your audience will not be particularly knowledgeable in the details of how to play poker. They will be more interested in the story and the suspense of who is going to outsmart who. This is the reason why many novels and movies don’t take a very technical approach to poker scenes and focus on drama and action rather than how realistic they are.
Tournaments are events hosted by an organizer at a store, convention, or other event where players can come in with their squad/deck/army/fleet and play against others who also love the game. The organizer of the tournament will usually provide a structure for how the tournament should run and be available to answer any questions.
