The origin of playing cards is shrouded in mystery. It looks like they originated in East Asia, Korea or China. These maps were probably brought to Europe by Crusaders or Chinese merchants. In this article you can learn the basic concepts and rules of playing simple card games that have arisen since then and are popular to this day. The rules and terms common to most games are set out immediately below this paragraph, and you can find the specifics of specific games in the drop-down lists at the bottom.
Basic Concepts of Card Games
Deck
The standard international deck consists of 52 playing cards divided into four suits of 13 cards each. Many decks also have two jokers, sometimes used as trumps. In our online Hobbygames board game store, you can purchase both regular and professional decks of cards, as well as 36-sheet decks of cards.
Cards
They have the following names: hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs – and each card shows the corresponding symbol of the suit. The symbols of hearts and diamonds are red, spades and clubs are black. All cards of any suit have different values: nine of them are numbered from 2 to 10; three are “pictures” (jack, queen, king); the last card is an ace (ace) and is valued at 1, but often is the largest card of the suit.
The dignity of numbered cards is indicated by both numbers and the corresponding number of symbols of the suit. Picture cards are indicated by stylized drawings and initial letters of the name, which differ depending on the country of origin of the deck. The ace is indicated by the letter A and a large single symbol of the suit. In Russian, the jack is denoted by the letter B, the queen by the letter D, the king by the letter K, and the ace by the letter T.
Layout
This is a scoring combination of cards in some games. The alignment usually consists of:
- three or more cards of the same value;
- three or more cards of consistently increasing value and the same suit.
Trumps
In games with bribes, a rule is often introduced according to which certain cards become trump cards. At the same time, any trump card beats any other card. Usually, all cards of any one suit (trump suit) become trump cards. However, in some games, only some cards of the suit are trump cards; in others, the trump suit is complemented by other trump cards. Within the trump suit, the cards have a standard hierarchy used in this game.
Choosing a Trump Suit
It depends on the type of game. In some games, there is a permanent trump suit, chosen by mutual agreement at the beginning of the game. But usually the suit becomes a trump card for only one hand of cards. In this case , it is determined by one of the following methods when dealing , depending on the type of game:
- competing player bids;
- by chance, that is, by opening a certain card, the opened suit becomes a trump card;
- in the prescribed order of priority of suits.
- Preparing for the game and dealing cards
Choosing Partners
When playing a team game, it is usually carried out by means of preliminary surrender. Each of the four players draws a card from the deck; the two players with the two largest cards form one pair, and the two remaining players from the second.