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Card Games

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.

Faro

Born in France, the game came to America in the 1700s. Its name often spelled "pharo" or "pharaoh," derived from period French playing cards, whose backs sometimes bore the likeness of an Egyptian ruler. Some early faro cards and layouts also displayed a portrait of a Bengal tiger, inspiring such terms as "bucking the tiger" or "twisting the tiger's tail" to describe playing the game. In later years, a framed tiger portrait hanging outside a gaming house announced the presence of a faro game within.

Faro was possibly the simplest gambling game ever devised. Players bet against the house, placing bets upon a green cloth-covered layout with painted images of 13 cards, ace through king. Spades were usually depicted, but suits didn't matter; only face value counted. The dealer dealt two cards per turn from a standard deck of 52, and the object was for players to predict which cards would appear. The first card of each turn lost for the player, but won for the bank. The second card won for the player. Chips, or "checks" (as serious players called them), placed upon a card's image bet that card to win for the player. Players could bet a card to lose by placing a hexagonal token called a copper (pennies were used in earlier days) atop the checks. If a pair turned up, the house took half of any bet on that card, these "splits" representing an honest bank's only real advantage. Players could back any number of cards and, if their cards did not appear, could change bets between turns. A lookout often supervised the game to prevent cheating, and would pay and collect all bets.

Originally, players could only back single cards, or groups of cards called figures, pots and squares. In later years, "heeling" and "stringing along" permitted Byzantine wagers wherein a single bet could cover several cards, betting them to win, lose, or any combination. Players could also wager that the face value of either card turned up would be odd, even, or the higher of the turn. Winning bets paid even money, except on the last turn, when players could "call the turn" by guessing the order of the final three cards and winners were paid 4-to-1.

Unique to faro was the casekeeper, an abacuslike frame with miniature cards matching those on the layout. From each card ran a spindle with four button-shaped disks, and the dealer's assistant, also called the casekeeper, moved these buttons to record the cards dealt. Some houses even provided printed cards, called tabs, so players could keep a similar tally. In early faro, the dealer dealt from his hand, and sleight-of-hand cheating was commonplace. In 1822, Virginia gambler Robert Bailey invented a brass dealing box with a hole in the top, which allowed cards to be slid out one by one. Bailey claimed this device prevented any shenanigans by dealers, but because it concealed the deck, many houses were skeptical and barred it from their premises. In 1825, an Ohio watchmaker named Graves perfected an open-top, spring-fed box that held the deck face up to eliminate any suspicion of cheating. This box, usually made of German silver, was an instant success and would remain the standard throughout faro's long reign. Since the top card was exposed in these boxes, it was a "dead" card and could not be bet upon. The top card became known as the "soda card," and the last card, also dead, was called "hock".

Although poker is better known today, it was fairly obscure until the late 1850's and didn't really catch on until the 1870s. Faro was the premier game; high-rolling gamblers liked the easy odds, and others enjoyed the quick action and the thrill of staking it all on the turn of a single card. One Colorado Gold Rush observer noted that faro was played by everyone "from the bonanza kings in their private clubs to the little bootblacks who buck the tiger in a shack on Carbonate Hill."

Although it provided a colorful spectacle for both player and spectator, faro was a stately game, even amid the pandemonium of the typical gambling house. An Easterner observed in 1872 that "there is rarely a word spoken during the progress of a deal, for faro is the most quiet, and in that respect, the most gentlemanly of all games." But this same writer also warned that "faro honestly played is a game of pure chance, and sometimes favors the unfortunate who meddles with it." Players liked the seemingly favorable odds; bankers often liked the many opportunities for cheating. Chicanery was employed by players as well as dealers, but to be caught invited gunplay. Cheating was so prevalent in the States, however, that American editions of Hoyle's rules began carrying disclaimers that honest faro could no longer be found. R.F. Foster, an early Hoyle editor, explained that "to justify this expenditure [of opening a faro bank], he [the dealer] must have some permanent advantage." He added that if no such advantage was inherent in the game, players were likely being cheated.

All that's left of faro today is the colorful jargon it contributed to American speech. An example that perhaps best illustrates the Western gambler's fascination with faro is attributed to George Devol's longtime partner, notorious bunco artist "Canada Bill" Jones. When a friend found Bill bucking the bank in a gambling hall along the Mississippi in the late 1850s, he warned Bill that the game was brace. "Yes," replied Bill wistfully, "but it's the only game in town."

People played cards anywhere

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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