Scare card
A turn or river card that plausibly completes a draw or beats the hands that were ahead — an ace, a third card of a suit, a card that fills an obvious straight. It is scary because of what it could have given somebody, not because of what it actually did.
Scare cards matter because they are the cards on which large bluffs become credible, and on which strong-but-not-best hands are most likely to fold. The player who can represent the completed draw is usually the one who bet the previous street, and the player holding a blocker to it is the one who can bluff most cheaply.
The mirror image is just as useful: when a scare card arrives and your opponent bets small rather than large, it very often means the card did not help them either.
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Full glossaryFrequently asked questions
Is a scare card always bad for you?
No. It is bad for the hand that was ahead, but it is exactly the card that makes a bluff believable if you are the one representing it.