If you had always played poker online and never been to a casino or played any poker offline tournaments, then you wouldn’t have come across Burn and Turn in poker. Burning the cards is quite common when you play Texas Hold’em or some of the other poker variants.
Also, if you want to host a perfect poker game, then you need to know what is burn and turn mean in poker. In this article, I’ll explain in detail what is a burn card or when do you have to burn the cards when playing Texas Hold’em poker.
There are a total of three burn cards when you play Texas Hold’em poker. Basically, you take the top card of the deck and Burn(discard) it before you deal the flop, turn, or the river. The burned cards are never revealed to the players. Buring the cards are essential in order to prevent any unfair advantage to the gamblers who cheat using the marked cards. Burning cards is practiced not only in Texas Hold’em but other poker variants that involves play over multiple streets.
This video will help you understand even better what are the rules of Texas Hold’em as well as what is burn and turn in poker. Credit goes to TruePokerDealer.
Table of Contents
Burn And Turn Related Questions
I’ll list some of the important questions related to burn and turn. If you have any questions related to them, please leave a comment below. Ok, let us get straight to the questions now.
What does burn mean in poker?
Burn in poker is a term used to discard the top card in the deck before you deal with a flop, turn, or river. The burned (Discarded) cards are not shown to the players sitting at the table. In fact, not even the dealer gets to see the burn card before or after burning it.
Burning the cards is not only practiced in Texas Hold’em but in all other poker variants involving multiple streets or poker variants with multiple community cards.
When do you burn in poker?
In Texas Hold’em poker, you burn one card from the top of the deck before you deal a flop, turn, or a river. I’ll explain what is a flop, turn, and a river below.
- Flop: Flop in Texas Hold’em are the first three community cards that are dealt after the initial betting round (First betting round). The community cards are displayed to all the players sitting at the table. So, before you deal with the first three community cards, you have to burn the top card from the deck and keep it aside.
- Turn: After the dealer deals the flop, a second betting round begins. Once that betting round finishes, the dealer then deals with another community card at the table. And this fourth community card in Texas Hold’em is known as the Turn card. And once again, before you deal with the turn card, you have to first discard the card at the top of the deck and keep it aside.
- River: After the dealer deals the turn card, a third betting round commences. And once the third betting round gets over, the fifth community card or also known as the River card is dealt at the table by the dealer. And once again, before you deal with the River, you have to first discard the card at the top of the deck and keep it aside.
So, in Texas Hold’em you have three burn cards before you deal the flop, turn, and the river. And this practice has to be done in some other poker variants as well.
Do you burn before the flop?
In Texas Hold’em you burn a card three times before dealing flop, Turn, and River. So, yes, you have to burn a card before the flop is dealt at the table by the dealer.
Even though you flop three cards, you burn only one card from the top of the deck. It is important to know that these burned cards are not shown to any of the players. But, you should make sure all the players can clearly see the burned cards.
Where do you keep the burned cards?
Firstly, when a dealer burns a card it is his responsibility that no one at the table sees the card in any way. If anyone does see what the card is, then the purpose of burning the card becomes useless.
Now, when a dealer burns a card he should keep it face-down beside him, in such a way that everyone at the table is able to see the burned cards. Usually, the burned cards are placed in the muck. But, if you don’t have a muck, then it can be placed near the deck where it is visible to everyone at the table. This way everyone at the table will know that you burned the cards as you should.
Now, keep in mind to never place the burned cards inside or below the deck. There isn’t any problem as such if you keep the burned cards in the deck. But, if a player at the table asks you where the burned cards are, then it might cause problems for you. Also, there are some other uses for the burned cards which I’ll explain further in the article. So, to avoid it, it is best to place the burned cards separately beside the deck or placed in the muck.
Why do poker dealers burn cards?
There are several reasons as to why a poker dealer burns a card. I’ll list the uses of burning the cards below.
- To prevent cheating: This is the main reason as to why the poker dealers burn the card. In casinos or cash games, the dealers burn the cards to prevent any participant to take advantage of the marked cards at the table. So that players who might have been able to read markings on that card during the previous round are less able to take advantage of that information during the current round.
- Prevent Second Dealing: Second dealing is the process of dealing with the second card at the top instead of the first card. Second dealing is usually performed when you know what the top card is and you want the second top card to increase your chance of winning. It is basically a form of cheating and can be easily prevented by burning a card before dealing with a flop, turn, or river.
- Extra cards when Irregularities occur: A common irregularity that happens in poker is when a dealer is dealing with the cards, he might accidentally flash the card and if others sitting at the table see the card, then the card has to be replaced. You can use one of the burned cards to replace the card that is exposed. And the exposed card is used as a burned card instead. But, this exposed card is kept face-up so that everyone at the table is able to look at the exposed card.
Is it necessary to Burn and turn when you play poker at your home?
The dealers usually burn card in order to prevent any cheating in Casinos or when poker tournaments are held. Since the burned cards are unknown cards and are not seen by any players, it doesn’t affect the probability in any way. Since burning a card doesn’t affect the game in any way, it is not necessary to burn a card when you play poker at your home for fun.
But, it is considered to be a good practice to burn the cards when you play Texas Hold’em poker. If you want to play poker professionally, then it is better to burn and turn the cards.
What happens when a dealer forgets to burn and turn a card?
When a dealer forgets to burn a card during the dealing of the flop and if a player sitting at the table notices it and asks for the burned card, then the following options can be done.
- If the burned card is present in one of the three flop cards and the dealer recognizes which of the three-card is the burned card, then the dealer re-constructs the flop by showing the burned card to everyone and replacing the burned card with the correct flop card from the deck. The exposed card is burned and kept aside with the other burned cards at the table.
- If the burned card is present in one of the three flop cards and the dealer isn’t %100 sure which card is the burned card, then in this case the flop stands. The next top card is burned and is used as the burned card for the flop so that proper burned cards can be used for Turn and River.
- If the dealer forgets to burn a card during the dealing of a flop, and a player notices only after the betting round finishes, then the flop stands. The next top card is burned just like in the previous case when the dealer isn’t 100% sure of the burned card. This way at least for the turn and river the right cards are burned.
These were some of the common questions related to burn and turn in poker. If you have any further questions related to it, then please leave a comment below. If you are interested, then you can take a look at my other blogs related to poker. Thanks for reading.
I am the owner of the site rohithebbar.com. I love playing poker and other card games.
