What’s in a deck of cards (part one)?

 

Being rather fond of playing cards and the associated games, it never quite dawned to me that some people may not actually know what they are playing with. In truth, when we say "deck of cards" most of us will immediately go for the more common 52 Card packs which may also include anything from one to three jokers. As I will show you, not all decks are the same and not all decks use the four pip convention of diamonds, spades, heart and clubs.

The French Deck

What we normally play with, for games ranging from poker, black jack, gin/rummy, crazy eights and solitaire, is what is known as the French deck. This deck consists of four suits, diamonds and hearts normally red in colour and spades and clubs normally black in colour. Each suit consists of exactly 13 cards ranging from Ace (1) to ten (10) and then Jack, Queen, King in that order. Multiply 13 by 4 suits and you get 52. Additionally depending on the deck you are handling you can find any-thing from 1 joker card to 3 jokers. Jokers are wild cards whose function changes from game to game and adds an extra level of strategy to the games where it is used.

    

Have a look at the figures above, ever wondered why whenever you pick up a French deck of cards, you will always find a somewhat unique and elaborate Ace of spades whereas the other Aces (diamonds, clubs and hearts) are always very plain? Well from some online research I found out that the practice of having an elaborate Ace of spades dates back to the reign of James I of England, who at the time passed a law which required the printing of a unique insignia on that card as proof that a tax placed on the local manufacture of cards had been paid. I also found out that right up to August 1960, decks of playing cards manufactured in the UK had duty paid on them and the Ace of Spades still carried the printer’s name and proof that taxation had been paid.

The Tarot Deck

Due to the close relationship that grew between this deck and the art of divination, many often forget that Tarot decks were used for play long before any gypsy grabbed a pack to read the fortunes of hopefuls that came their way. The Tarot decks can have one of two sets of 4 pips. The French decks such as those produced by Piatnik & Sons use the regular French deck suits. Other decks such as the Marseille Tarot pack employ the 4 pips of the Spanish decks namely Cups (instead of hearts), Coins (instead of diamonds), Swords (instead of Spades) and Batons or Wands (instead of Clubs). The Tarot decks also come with an additional 22 trump cards which feature very intricate designs and are themselves the source of all the mystique that surrounds these decks. In the Piatnik deck used in the trick-taking game of Tarot, these trumps depict scenes from the days of kings and kingdoms, snapshots of peasants and nobles indulging in various common day to day activities. These trumps are numbered from 0 to 21. The "zero" card in the Piatnik deck is also called the Mandolin, Excuse or the Fool and its function within the traditional games is not far removed from that of the joker in the regular French decks.

In the Marseille deck which contains older depictions and more symbology we find now archaic references to daily life way back when people and the especially the common folk had to contend with a more frugal, frightening and cruel reality marred by relentless masters, the whims of nature, and death caused by a plethora of incurable diseases. Add to this the almost con-tinuous brushing of shoulders with all the various facets of wars between adjacent kingdoms or princedoms and life could indeed be a short and grim affair. Hence the Marseille deck has trump cards that depict such things as Death, the Devil, the Chariot, the Hierophant or Pope, but then we also find the Lovers, the Sun, the Wheel of Fortune and such priced human qualities as Temperance and Strength. Another peculiarity of the Tarot deck is that you have 4 picture cards to every suit and not three. In order we have Page, Knight, Queen and King. This gives us 14 cards for every suit or 56 cards in the four suits. To these we must then at the 22 trumps (zero to 21) given a whopping 78 cards as our final count.

The Spanish Deck

Though not quite so popular outside their country of origin (namely Spain and Italy), there are several games that can be played with the Spanish Deck. The main significant feature of these decks lies in their usage of the four suits which are the same as for the Marseille Tarot deck mentioned earlier. So in the Spanish deck we have Coins, Cups, Batons/Wands and Swords. Additionally the number of cards in these decks can vary from 40 to 52 and here’s why. In the 52 card variant you have 13 cards per suite Ace to 10 and Jack/Page, Knight and King. As you noticed the Queen is missing and you will not find her in a Spanish deck. In the 40 Card decks then you have only 10 cards per suit Ace to 7 and the Jack, Knight and King. In Italy you will find various regional variations on this Spanish deck but mostly they are all 40 card decks. Even the size of these cards varies, some are quite diminutive others are closer to what we might call bridge-size decks. Most of the 40 card decks are used for two principle games in Italy and these are Scopa and Briscola. I have personally grown quite fond of the former because it offers some interesting elements of strategy while offering hours of carefree competitive play.

I would also like to mention here a third variation of the Spanish Deck which comes with 48 cards and in common use in Spain. Suits are the same as above but now you have 12 cards in each suit. In sequence you have Ace to 9 then Sota (Jack), Caballo (Knight) and Rey (King). The number 10 is normally found printed on the Sota, the Caballo has 11 on it and 12 on the Rey. There are various card games that are played using this deck, and more commonly, the 40 card decks mentioned earlier. Mus for instance is a popular vying or betting game for exactly 4 players. Then you have other games such as la escoba del quince (a trick-taking game), el julepe, el cinquillo, las siete y media, la mona etc.

The German Decks

There are also other variations out there with unique pips that stem out of popular regional culture. For instance a popular deck variation in Ger-man speaking countries and regions around Europe is composed of 36 cards with specific unique suites namely Bells, Leaves, Acorns and Hearts. Each suite has an Ace (As/Sau), King (Konig), Over (Ober), Un-der (Unter) and the 10 through 6. The 6 of bells has all other signs in-scribed on it and with the word WELI printed on it. One variation of this deck is the Salzburger deck used in German speaking parts of South Tyrol in Italy and as far south as Trento. They are used to play games such as Perlaggen, Watten and Bieten (also played in Austria).

....to be continued

 

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My First Playing Cards Video Review

For my first review I will be tackling two decks which I consider to be among my most favourite. The first card deck is the Copag Epoc, a vey particular deck in that it is essentially a black deck with white and colour pips. The artwork is also incredible and in my opinion very imaginative. The Epoc is a bridge-sized deck which can be adopted for all manner of card games. it is also made from a 100% plastic stock that is reasonably resilient to bending and shuffling. Personally I have grown very fond of the plastic used in Copag decks, not so much when it comes to the paper stock they use. However I will be discussing this in a future posting.

The second deck I will be reviewing will be the Cartamundi – Star wars Heroes and Villains. the video blog attached to this brief introduction will give you a better impression of both the quality and content of this second deck of cards. Cartamundi use various stock qualities for their decks and this pair of decks comes with a moderately good quality stock that shuffles well…but don’t expect to go about shuffling repeatedly for any extended periods of time. Still you don’t buy this deck to have it trashed through continuous play..this is a collector’s item after all.

This is my first video blog so please bear with me if it is a bit rough around the edges.

A review of the Copag “Epoc” deck and the Cartamundi “Starwars–Heroes and Villains” Decks

Should you have any queries about these or other deck I will be reviewing please feel free to email me or post a comment on this blog and I will get back to you with any relevant replies.

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Welcome

“My name is Colin McElhatton I am 39 years old and a Cardoholic!” Said that way it does sound bad doesn’t it? Well Collecting decks of cards and learning new card games while also revisiting some of the lesser known games has become one of my main hobbies. Through this blog I intend to share this passion for playing cards with kindred spirits who find pleasure and sincere enjoyment in sharing a few rounds of their choice card game with family and friends. Yet before I venture any further how about a little history, what made me so fond of cards in the first place?

Early years

Well my introduction to playing cards came when I was rather young, I think at around 8 or 9 years of age. It was fairly common for us to go over to my maternal grandmother’s place for Sunday lunch. It was a rather boisterous occasion full of laughs and a sincere feeling of well-being at just being together. The meals would be sumptuous if not a bit on the heavy side and afterwards, almost as an extension to the ritual of having a meal together, the cards would be brought out and the games would begin.

The first deck of cards I ever handled and which is still rather common in my country ( you can almost buy it from any stationer or games shop) was the bridge-sized deck produced by Piatnik and Sons. Piatnik have a good rugged card stock with a linen finish that can take on moderately rough  handling without getting too deformed or warped. They somehow always feel good in your hands even when the deck has pilled on several years worth of rummy and other assorted games.

Rummy

Back on my grandma’s dining table, the game of choice was 7 or 10 card rummy. Very straight forward game, you were dealt 7 or 10 cards depending on the variation. Gameplay was clockwise. The dealer would shuffle the deck pass out the cards and then place the remaining stock of cards face down while turning over the first card to start a discard pile. Then in turn players would either take the exposed card or pick a card from the top of the deck. The aim was to make runs ( e.g.1-2-3 of clubs or 10-J-Q-K of hearts are examples of runs) or sets (e.g. 5-5-5 or 10-10-10-10)  of 3 or 4 cards. For instance in the 7-card version  you would make a set or run of 3 and one of 4. In the 10-card variation you would be expected to make three sets or runs, two of three and one of four. Obviously the first player to meld all his cards into sets and runs would go out and claim “Fatta!” (in Maltese) or “Done!”.

There were obviously other games, I remember my grandfather as well as another aunt and uncle would play Gin Rummy which they would call “Rummy tal-punti” or “Rummy bl-istilel” in Maltese. Funnily enough it looked too complicated for my liking at the time even though nowadays I do love to play the game and find it to be infinitely more rewarding than most other rummy games.

Flash!

There was another game we were rather fond of which was closely reminiscent of Crazy Eights and which my uncle used to call Flash, play was clockwise. Basically in this game, a dealer would shuffle a standard deck (or two decks in some instances) of cards (without jokers) then pass out 7 cards to each player one at a time. The remaining stock would be placed face down on the table with the first card being turned over to form a discard pile. The main objective was to get rid of all your cards before the other players. You did this by either matching the suit of the topmost discarded card or its rank. In addition there were a number of trumps that held special significance in this game as follows;

1. The Ace of any suit was wild, you could request for instance that the suit for the next player to play to be something other than that of the topmost discard. Say for instance the topmost discard was hearts, and you had plenty spades and an ace in your hands, you would throw the ace on the discard pile (ace of any suit) and state “Spades!”. The next player to play would have to play spades.
2. The Jack which had to be played according to suite ( so if hearts was the topmost discard you would only be allowed to play a Jack of hearts), meant the next player in line would skip his turn and play would then proceed from the next player to his left.
3. The Two which had to be played according to suit (or rank as shall be seen) meant that the next player would have to perform one of the following actions:
1. If he did not have another 2 of any suite in his hand he would have to take two cards from the deck and skip his turn
2. If he did have another 2 of any suite in his hand he would lay it down sparing himself the penalty and the subsequent player would have to take 4 cards.
3. There was no limit to this piling up of twos so if one deck was used it could happen that a player ended up taking 8 cards (2X4) and worse if two decks were used then it could be that a player ended up taking anything up to a whooping 16 cards!

If when it was a player’s turn he could not play because he could not match either the suit or the rank of the topmost discard in addition to not having any aces (cannot change suit), then he was expected to pick a card from the deck. This could be played either of two ways, in one variation of the game he kept taking cards from the deck till he found something he could use or alternatively in another variation he would just take one card and skip his turn until on a lucky draw or discard (by another player) he could then discard a card he held in his hand.

Also when a player would manage to whittle his cards down to just 1 card, he was obliged to say “Last Card!”. If he failed to do so and someone noticed, he would incur a penalty and be obliged to draw one card from the deck. Obviously if you managed to successfully discard all your cards, well  you won!

There were several other card games we used to play, yet funnily enough poker and poker variants were not among them. In a country where tombola (or bingo) is still popular and where many spend good money on lottery tickets and other varieties of gambling games such as Sports betting and Keno, well you’d expect people to approach the subject of poker with a more open mind. it was okay to spend what today would be €10 to €50 to gamble weekly on something you had absolutely not control over such as a lottery but when you mentioned poker people looked funny at you. I have to admit that the various unregulated poker cash games that evolved among the less savoury members of the gambling population did not help give the game good repute.  Poker was seen as a money wrecking pass-time populated by card sharks and tricksters out to prey on the foolish and weak. Nowadays with the advent of tournament and televised poker things have changed, this family of card games has exploded as a world favourite as well as being recognised as a bona fide mind game. Still this website wont be about poker though I will mention a few varieties in the passing.

What to expect on this blog

As a cardoholic I will be discussing the decks I acquire, the impression they give me, their durability depending on what use I put them to. I will also discuss some card games as well as discuss gaming sessions that might have offered some form of revelation or entertainment value. I will also occasionally extend these blogs to games that play similar to card games but which use tiles or domino like sets. likewise I will discuss their value as games as well as bring you my impressions and considerations.

I really hope you will find this blog informative and quite frankly entertaining. Cards are something I really enjoy playing principally for the competition value they offer as well as for the socialisation that can be derived from just sitting around a card table with friends and family for some idyllic hours of carefree gaming.

Until Next time!

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