Poker is a card game where players place chips (money) into the pot before cards are dealt. Each player is dealt two cards, and then five community cards are dealt, forming a “hand”. The highest ranked hand wins the pot (all of the money bet during the round). Players can place additional chips into the pot after each betting turn by saying “call” (matching the amount of another person’s bet) or “raise” (putting more than your opponent has).
A key aspect of poker strategy is reading the tells of your opponents. These are involuntary responses, such as touching the face or obsessively peeking at their cards/chip stack, a twitch of the eyebrows or darting of the eyes, or even a change in timbre of voice that telegraph anxiety. Professional players use these tells to determine if their opponents have good hands, bad hands or are bluffing.
Observe experienced players and try to understand their reasoning to build your own poker instincts. This will improve your game faster than trying to memorize and apply complicated systems.
There are a plethora of poker resources available to help you learn. When I began playing there were only a few poker forums worth visiting and a handful of books that were worth a read. Now the landscape is completely different with an infinite number of poker forums, Discord channels and FB groups to join and a seemingly never-ending list of poker books being published.