Board
also called community cards
The board is the set of shared cards in the middle of the table, up to five of them, which every player may combine with their own two cards.
Because it is shared, it belongs to everybody equally, and that is what makes reading it useful. Every straight and flush the board allows is available to your opponent as well, and a card that improves you often improves the hands that were already beating you.
When your own two cards add nothing, you play the board. That is a real outcome rather than a technicality, and it usually means a split pot, because whoever else got there is playing the same five cards.
an example
your cards
board
All four fives are on the table. Your ace plays as the fifth card, so you hold four fives with an ace. Anybody without an ace plays the same four fives with the nine from the board, and loses to you on that fifth card alone.
This example is made up. The real one is in your own hand history: find board in your own hands and see how often it came up and what it cost you.
related terms
Flop
The flop is the first three community cards, dealt face up all at once after the first round of betting in Texas Hold'em ...
Hole cards
Your hole cards are the two cards dealt face down to you alone, which only you may use and which stay hidden until a sho ...
Board texture
Board texture is how connected and how suited the shared cards are, which decides how many strong hands and draws are po ...
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Knowing the word is not the same as seeing it.
The full order of play, from the blinds to the showdown.