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Card Games

Cards are sets of flat, usually rectangular pieces of pasteboard, cardboard, or plastic, generally ornamented with figures and numbers, used in playing various games of skill or chance. Playing cards began to be used in antiquity, perhaps originally for magical purposes and later as markers in games simulating battle maneuvers. Some scholars believe that cards originated in India as a derivative of the game of chess; other theories suggest that cards were first used in China or Egypt. From the Middle East they were, presumably, introduced into Europe by the Crusaders.

In China, one type of cards apparently was derived from paper money, another type from dominoes. In India, one of the best known sets is the dasavatara. This is a deck of ten suits, based upon the ten avatars, or incarnations of the god Vishnu: fish, tortoise, wild boar, lion, dwarf, ax, bow and arrow, thunderbolt, conch, and horse. Most Indian cards are round, of various sizes, and usually made of heavily lacquered cardboard, papier-mâché, or occasionally ivory. In Japan, two popular decks are the hana fuda (“flower game”) and the uta garuta (“the game of 100 poets”).

The first mentions of playing cards in Europe date from the 13th and 14th centuries, and the earliest known examples were usually hand-painted paper. The cost of a single deck was prohibitive; their use was therefore restricted to the aristocracy. In 1397, however, a decree issued in Paris forbade the playing of cards by working people on working days. This seems to indicate that cards were mass produced, probably by wood-block printing, before the invention of the printing press. During the 15th century wood-block cards were designed in Germany and exported in great numbers. With the advances in printing, card playing increased in popularity.

Types of playing cards and their designs, or suit symbols, vary throughout the world. The oldest European cards are of 14th-century Italian design. The origin of the suit signs now used almost universally can be traced to French designs that, when introduced into England, were named hearts, spades, diamonds, and clubs.

Of the many types of playing-card decks, one of the oldest is the tarot deck. Designed in Italy in the early 14th century for the game of Tarot, these cards are now best known as a fortune-telling medium. A tarot deck consists of 78 cards, 22 of which portray symbolic and allegorical objects or personages; the rest are numbered cards, from which evolved the 52-card decks that are used in England, France, the U.S., and several other countries.

In the standard deck, each of the 4 suits comprises 13 cards, consisting of 3 court, or face cards (king, queen, and jack, or—in England—knave), and cards numbered from ace to 10. In addition to these, one or two cards known as jokers. Jokers were introduced in the U.S. in 1872 and are derived from the tarot card known as the fool. Other changes in the standard deck have been few. The 52 cards are sometimes trimmed to 36 or 32 for the games of piquet, euchre, or bezique, or to 48 for games of the pinochle family. Double-headed court cards were created in France, in the early 19th century, to facilitate recognition of the cards being played. Indices, that is, the small suit symbols at opposite corners of cards, were added in the late 19th century so that a card hand could be held in a close fan with individual cards still distinguishable. Cards embossed in Braille are available, enabling the blind to play card games.

Nonstandard playing-card decks abounded in Europe from the 17th to the 19th century. In England, from about 1670 to about 1720, a series of historical playing cards were issued. They were engraved with intricate comic-strip drawings, each depicting a significant event relating to the title of the deck. About 15 such decks were designed, among them: “The Knavery of the Rump,” satirizing Oliver Cromwell's Rump Parliament, “The Reign of Queen Anne,” and “Marlborough's Victories.” Many beautiful decks of cards were made in 18th- and 19th-century France. Of greatest interest are the “revolutionary” decks, which, instead of kings and queens, had cards representing “citizens,” and the exquisitely hand-colored “costume cards,” dating from the mid-19th century. The court cards of these latter decks represented actual people, dressed in the sumptuous costumes of the period.

Perhaps the most intriguing of all decks of cards, however, is the “transformation” deck. In the early 19th century, when no indices were yet used on cards, people would amuse themselves by trying to create drawings based on the pips, or suit symbols, on the cards. The term transformation refers to changing a plain card to a work of art. About 75 such decks were printed.

Playing cards are the most widely used objects of diversion in the world; estimates suggest that more than three-quarters of all people play some type or types of card games. Also, old and unusual playing cards have become valuable collectibles; and playing-card collections are housed in many museums throughout the world.

Hundreds of card games have been devised over the centuries, but relatively few have had lasting appeal. Such games as ombre, popular in the 17th and 18th centuries, survive only through their influence on modern games. Poker, for example, is based on several now-forgotten games.

Although no precise classification is possible, card games may be divided, for convenience, into five broad categories. The first group includes the trick-winning games, in which certain cards or an entire suit are trumps. Among these are the various forms of whist, bridge, and euchre. A second group comprises games in which the object is to own or win certain valuable counting cards and sometimes to show specific scoring combinations known as melds. Among such games are pinochle, bezique, and piquet. The nontrump game of casino and the game of hearts, in which the aim is to avoid the capture of counting cards, may also be included in this category.

The object of another group of games is to obtain a given score by matching, assembling, or discarding cards. Of these, the rummy games are the most widely played. Two of the most popular forms are gin and canasta. Related to rummy are the so-called stop games, such as fan tan, in which players may either match eligible cards to a table layout according to denomination, suit, or sequence or pass their turns if unable to do so. A similar idea of card disposal by matching plus rearranging underlies the varied forms of solitaire, as well as such children's games as authors and old maid.

Constituting a fourth category are the showdown games, in which players wager that they can show cards, or combinations of cards, out ranking those of their opponents. Poker is the best known of the showdown games. A final group, based on adding or matching numbers, includes such betting games as blackjack or twenty-one, baccarat and chemin de fer, and cribbage.

The history of cards contains its share of controversy. A Swiss edict prohibiting them antedates the oldest surviving European examples, which were made during the fifteenth century. American decks began appearing after the Revolution and during the next century became wonderfully various and elaborate. Some collectors focus on single-ended faces, which have their suit symbols and numerical values or court ranks printed on one end rather than both, while others prefer unusual face designs or specific back motifs. Cards promoting businesses or brands ranging from General Electric to Pabst Blue Ribbon beer are highly popular. So are cards with patriotic themes and political subject matter, as well as those once sold as souvenirs of tourist destinations and railway routes. The list goes on and on.

As for prices, decks with pinup girls sell for as little as $20, while mint examples illustrated by the celebrated Alberto Vargas fetch about $100. A Union Civil War deck with patriotic shields, stars, eagles, and the flag for suit marks might cost $1,000. One high-stakes player recently anted up more than $10,000 for an 1819 deck commemorating the First Seminole War, but five-figure prices are rare in the American card-collecting game.

Playing cards, unless they were graced with portraits of famous authors or suitably inscribed with Biblical sayings, were still classed as "the Devil’s picture books” in most good Christian homes. The theatre was generally suspect. Ballroom dancing was considered either indecent or the exclusive province of the rich, or both. But as America began to frolic its way through the Gay Nineties into the twentieth century, simply having fun for its own sake became a legitimate family endeavor.

Families played them in their living room or the dining room table (if it was clear). Children played cards in their bedroom, the living room with their friends, and outside. The card table folds up, is lightweight and portable. It could be carried to anywhere in the house by any member of the family. It could be taken outside on spring and summer days. Cards are so versatile that they truly can be played anywhere. Few "props" are needed to play cards other than the cards themselves. In some cases a pencil and piece of paper, poker chips, etc. are required, but for the most part, all one needs to play is a full deck of cards!

Many people met and played cards in a social and competetive way. Just like there have been popular weekly bowling leagues, people during the era of World War II and the Great Depression, people met in card clubs. It seemed that women had their bridge clubs on weekday afternoons and men met to play poker at night. Bridge clubs were often composed of women who met at each other's houses. Clubs were usually reserved for the "hard core" players of Bridge, Rummy, Poker and especially Pinochle.

It is often said that men play poker and women play bridge. Gender stereotypes have placed on these games from society. Seen in movies and on television are men sitting around a poker table in a dark room, smoking cigars and drinking beer. Women are dressed formally playing bridge in an elegant room drinking tea and frozen alcoholic beverages. It is given that both men and women enjoy playing card games. For the most part, they enjoy playing the same games; though the order of favorite games varies.

Cards today are not nearly as popular as they once were. Although people who lived in the "Era of Great Card-Playing" still play cards today, card playing has truly lost its thrill. When one walks passed a school during recess and recreation time, one doesn't see children playing cards with one another. From time to time, children can be found playing with a deck of Old Maid or Uno Cards, but nowadays, cards don't appeal to children. Adults have somewhat lost the love of cards.

Popular card games today are played on the computer. These days computers come equipped with software for solitare and hearts. One can buy nearly every popular game for their computer. Computer specialist, Robert Munley, notes that people buy or download games in order to learn them, or become more familiar with odds (as in the case of gamblers). But even electronic card games don't hold up the popularity that card games had in the last half century.

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