Card game

An enormous number of card games have been invented over the centuries. Only a few major games and families of games can be mentioned here. Different card games are available for any reasonable number of players.

Packs of cards

The standard Anglo-American (bridge) pack of cards consists of 52 cards. Most actual packs sold include 1 or more often 2 extra cards called jokers, which are used in some games, but in most are not used in the formal structure of the game, being simply available in practice to replace lost or damaged cards. The cards are in 4 suits, which in English are known as spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs (symbolized by ♠, ♥, ♦, ♣ on Anglo-American and French cards). In Anglo-American and French cards spades and clubs are black, hearts and diamonds are red. Each suit comprises 13 cards. These consist of 3 court cards, known in English as king, queen and jack or knave, and 10 numbered cards from 1 to 10, though the card numbered 1 is labelled A and called the ace. In most games it is not treated as a numbered card at all.

Continental European packs have a variety of names for suits and ranks, but they also usually have fewer cards. French and German packs usually have 32 cards, omitting all numbers from 2 to 6 for French cards, or 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 for German ones (the distinction is unimportant, as the 2 in German packs is treated like the ace in others). Swiss packs are similar to German ones, but with the addition of 6s, for a total of 36 cards. Spanish and Italian packs have 40 cards, omitting 8 to 10.

There are also a variety of more specialized packs used for particular games.

The cards in a pack have identical backs, enabling a game to distinguish between cards a player is entitled to know the identity of and those they are not.

Introduction of cards to Europe

Playing cards are first recorded in Europe in the 1360s. They arrived from Egypt, where a 52-card pack equivalent to that described above was already in use. They spread widely over the next few decades. The earliest description of a pack dates from 1377, and is of a 52-card pack equivalent to that described above.

According to Hoyle?

In the 18th century, Edmond Hoyle wrote treatises on four card games (whist, piquet, quadrille nad brag) and two other games (backgammon and chess), which he later reissued as a compendium. These treatises consisted of advice on playing the games, not descriptions of the rules, but over time it became a widespread practice to call a collection of descriptions of rules of card games, and sometimes others, by the name of Hoyle, which was not restricted by copyright. There is a widespread belief that whatever particular Hoyle one is familar with gives the "official" rules of games, and many such books in fact make such claims, though their rules often differ. In fact most games have no "official" rules, and are subject to numerous variations between different playing circles.