Why does the dealer burn cards while playing poker? I was told that it is done to prevent cheating but I still don't get it. I apologize if my question seems silly; I am a novice at poker.
1 Answer
No question is silly, and you are right, it is for preventing cheating. Let me elaborate on that.
The main reason for burning top card is to prevent players from using a marked deck. For example, if someone is marking cards in one way or another they would be able to identify what would be the next card to come even only seeing the back of it.
Without even saying, that would be a tremendous advantage and that player would literally be unbeatable since he knows what comes next and what he needs to do. Burning the first card prevents that from happening since the only visible card is thrown into the much and the next one is dealt.
While it does not solve the cheating problem completely, it at least reduces the advantage that could be had otherwise.
