Burn Card

In card games, a burn card is a playing card dealt from the top of a deck, and discarded ("burned"), unused by the players. Burn cards are almost always placed face down next to the discard pile without being revealed to the players.Burning is most often performed in casinos to deter a form of cheating known as card marking. In poker, for example, the top card of the deck stub is burned at the beginning of each betting round, 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. Knowledge of a burn card might be marginally useful, such as knowing there is one less Ace in the deck, but far less so than having it in play.
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any card placed in the discard rack without being entered into play.

See burn card.
  

After cutting the deck and prior to dealing, the first card or few cards are not dealt, but moved directly to the discard tray, face down or sometimes merely placed under the deck face up. Prevents counters from seeing burn card.