Playing card
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Playing cards is the name for the 54 cards used in a lot of games like poker, bridge, blackjack, and solitaire.
There are 52 basic cards in a deck. These cards have a suit and a number (called the value or rank). There are 4 suits and 13 ranks in each suit. There are also two Jokers that do not have a suit or a rank.
[change] Suits
spades (♠), hearts (♥), diamonds (♦), clubs (♣). In many countries different suit signs may be used. In central Europe, there are cards with the suit signs of acorns, leaves, hearts, and bells. In Italy and Latin America, there are playing cards with the suits of clubs, swords, cups, and coins and Aces
Signs for Traditional People
(♠)---Spade hearts (♥) Insert non-formatted text here Diamonds (♦), Ace (♣)
[change] Values
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack (J), Queen (Q), King (K), Ace (A). In most games the ace is the highest value, but in some games it is the lowest.
Jacks, Queens, and Kings are called Face Cards because the cards have pictures of their names. The King of Hearts is also called the 'Suicide King' because he is sometimes pictured holding a knife in his head. Originally the king had an axe, and over the years, the head of the axe was dropped from the picture. What was left looks like a sword, thus making the king the look like he is stabbing himself in the head. Many other cards have nicknames, too: '2' cards are also known as deuces; '3' cards as treys; Aces as bullets; Kings as cowboys; The king of diamonds is also known as the man with the axe. The one-eyed jacks are the jack of hearts and the jack of spades.
For many games, the Jokers are removed from the deck, making the total number of cards in the deck 52. Sometimes the deck is reduced to 40, 36, or 32 cards for playing some games like belote, sheepshead or euchre. The tarot deck with 78 cards is also a deck of playing cards. Although it is common to use the tarot for fortune telling, people in many European countries also play card games with tarot cards. People have also used standard playing cards for fortune telling.
