Community Cards (Board Cards)

Community Cards (also called "shared cards" or "window cards") are the cards that are dealt in a poker hand where all players who are involved in the hand can use. In community card games, players are dealt an incomplete hand in their two hole cards. These hole cards would be used in combination with the community cards to make the best possible hand.

Community cards are dealt face up in the center of the table and there is a burn card dealt face down before each sequence of cards are dealt. They are usually dealt in a straight line although there are certain variants that use elaborate layouts (for instance Elevator Poker)

You will often hear these community cards being called the 'board' or 'board cards'.

This is why games like Texas Hold’em and Omaha are often referred to as community card games. This simply means that the game involves cards being dealt that are shared between all players.