Card Games

Fun Facts About Card Games

• It's commonly understood that the standard 52-card deck has its roots in France around the 1480s. However, some historians believe it first appeared in Imperial China as early as the 9th century.
• The Joker card was invented in the United States in the 1860s for the game of Euchre, where an extra trump card was needed. This colorful contribution to playing card history eventually was adopted by many other games.
• There are exactly 2,598,960 possible five-card poker hands in a standard 52-card deck.
• The Ace of Spades earned the nickname Death Card in the Vietnam War because U.S. soldiers would leave it on enemy bodies as a psychological tactic.
• Bridge is considered the hardest card game to master at the highest level. Unlike luck-heavy games like poker, bridge is a strategy game that's often compared to chess. Top players typically need a decade or more of serious study to reach world-class status.
• It's speculated the four suits in a card deck originally represented the four classes of medieval society, with Hearts for clergy, Diamonds for merchants, Clubs for peasants, and Spades for the military or nobility.
• The Queen of Spades is sometimes nicknamed the Black Lady because she's a major penalty card in the popular American version of Hearts.
• The King of Hearts is sometimes called the Suicide King because the sword in his hand appears to be plunged into his own head. This visual quirk is a result of centuries of copying worn-out designs where the King originally held an axe. The axe head eventually disappeared and the left-over handle transformed into a sword positioned behind his head.