In poker, a burn card, or simply a “burn,” is a card that is removed from play and placed in the discard pile face down before dealing the flop, turn, and river cards. The primary purpose of the burn card is to prevent cheating by ensuring that the top card of the deck is not accidentally exposed during the deal.
Additionally, it can prevent players from gaining information about the next card to be dealt by tracking the sequence of cards during the deal. The burn card is typically not shown to the players and has no bearing on the outcome of the hand.