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Board Cards (Poker)
Board Cards is a term used in community card games, that is games that use shared (or community or window) cards. Texas Hold'em is probably the best known 
of community card games and uses 'hole cards' which players keep private to themselves - in the example you can see player one has 10-J and player two has AK - these are hole cards. Player one will not know what player two has and vice versa. There are then community cards (circled in red) which are dealt that all players can use to make their best poker hand. The area where these community cards are dealt is known as 'the board' and board cards simply refer to the community cards that are dealt.
The board cards are usually dealt in a straight line however their are poker variants that use more complex methods of dealing the cards, for instance Elevator Poker.
Looking at Hold'em, the idea of the game is to use the cards in your hand (hole cards) along with the community cards to make the best 5 card poker hand. In Hold'em, you can use any combination of your two hole cards and 5 community cards to make your best hand.
In Holdem there are various rounds of betting after which the board cards are dealt. Initially all players in the hand are dealt two hole cards face down. After a round of betting there are three cards dealt on the board, otherwise known as the Flop. There is another round of betting followed by one more card being dealt, known as the Turn. After another round of betting the fifth and final board card is dealt, known as the River with one final round of betting and then showdown (players show their cards).
Of course there are a number of other popular community card games in which the rules differ from that of Hold'em. For instance in Omaha Hold'em, players must use exactly 3 board cards along with 2 cards in their hand to make the best poker hand.
In poker, you will not know what community cards will be dealt and the first decision you will face will be whether to get involved in the hand. It is important to know which starting hands you want to play and which you do not. As the community cards are dealt you will start to be able to work out the strength of your hand and your chances for improving, which will help you determine how to play the hand.
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