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Card Games

Leaders of the Pack

The Laws of Piquet (by Cavendish)
The Cribbage Player's Text-Book : Being ... (by George Walker)
The Correct Card: Or, How to Play at Whi... (by Arthur Campbell Walker)
A Bibliography of Card-Games and of the ... (by Norton Townshend Horr)
Cassell's Book of In-Door Amusements, Ca...
Patience : a series of games with cards (by Cheney, Ednah Dow Littlehale)
Best Card Games in the Galaxy (by Klutz, Inc, Editor)

Since the advent of civilization, humans have devised countless ways to amuse themselves. From telling stories around campfires to organized sports, these diversions from everyday life entertain, confer glory upon the winners, and utilize skill sets that may come in handy in other endeavors.

The earliest evidence of card games comes from the ninth century during the Tang dynasty in China in references by writer Su E in his Collection of Miscellanea of Duyang. Decks or packs of cards and the games associated with them rose in popularity and refinement in the Song and Ming dynasties. Playing cards often drew from popular literary characters from novels such as Water Margin, attributed to author Shi Nai’an and published in the 14th century.

Playing cards traveled to Europe in the last quarter of the 14th century in the hands of the Moors who played a game called naib. The Italians picked up this new option for entertainment and designed the tarot deck in the 1430s. A full tarot deck contained 56 cards divided among four suits, swords, clubs, cups, and coins, each with low cards numbered 1 through 10 and court cards. The court cards featured the valet (jack), chevalier (cavalier/knight), dame (queen), and roi (king).

The jack, queen, and king now comprise the face cards in today’s modern decks.

Packs of cards evolved and changed according to region. France used decks marked with the four suits of spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. Germans preferred leaves, hearts, bells, and acorns. Decks differed in the number of cards, with the French tarot expanding to 78 cards and Germanic, Spanish, and Italian decks going as low as 32 cards.

England adopted the French conventions for playing cards and exported that preference to the New World in a 52-card deck with numbered cards two through ten, three face cards (jack, queen, king), and the ace which can either serve as a “one” card or as a trump card, depending upon the game.

Variations of card games proliferated, with some games eventually inspiring manufacturers to print decks specifically for those games, including Old Maid, Phase 10, Rook, and Uno.

Deck size normally limits the number of players in a card game. Two-player games include those that endure in popularity: piquet, bezique, sixty-six, klaberjass, gin rummy, and cribbage. Card games played by teams of two include whist, bridge, and triomphe, a 17th century French card game. Variations of some card games allow for more than four players by adding decks, such as canasta (based on gin rummy) and blackjack (also known as twenty-one).

Whether used merely for entertainment or gambling, basic card games and their many variants are described and taught in the following books:

A Bibliography of Card-Games and of the History of Playing Cards by Norton Townshend Horr
Cassel’s Book of In-Door Amusements, Card Games, and Fireside Fun (no author attributed)
Patience: A Series of Games with Cards by by Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney
Best Card Games in the Galaxy by Klutz, Inc., editor

By Karen M. Smith