Poker is a card game that has many different variants. It is played with a standard 52-card English deck and was first popularized in the United States around the time of the American Civil War, spreading to most regions of the world after that. The game is typically played with one or more players and betting is done in rounds. The player who has the highest ranked hand of cards when the hands are shown wins the pot, which is all the money that was bet during that round.

A good narrator of a poker game can add to the excitement by using their voice to convey the players’ emotions as well as the action on the table. The narrator can also use pacing to keep the tension high. It is important to avoid cliches such as having someone make a Royal Flush or 4 Aces because those hands are very rare in real-life games and will lose all credibility. It is much more realistic to have someone win on a pair of 2’s or 3’s.

It is also a good idea to have some practical examples of poker hands in the book. This can be a mix of hands that you have played yourself or ones from other sources. It can be helpful to keep a file of these hands and to review them from time to time as you prepare to write your own book. This can help you to see what is important in a poker hand and what kind of details will be interesting for your audience.