Card game - Wikipedia Jump to content Main menu Main menu move to sidebar hide Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Special pages Search Search Appearance Donate Create account Log in Personal tools Donate Create account Log in Contents move to sidebar hide (Top) 1 History Toggle History subsection 1.1 9th to 13th centuries 1.2 14th and 15th centuries 1.3 16th century 1.4 17th century 1.5 18th century 2 Types 3 Outplay games Toggle Outplay games subsection 3.1 Trick-taking games 3.1.1 Plain-trick games 3.1.2 Point-trick games 3.2 Beating games 3.3 Adding games 3.4 Fishing games 3.5 Matching games 3.6 War group 3.7 Climbing games 4 Card exchange games Toggle Card exchange games subsection 4.1 Draw and discard group 4.2 Commerce group 4.3 Cuckoo group 4.4 Quartet group 4.5 Card passing group 5 Layout games Toggle Layout games subsection 5.1 Patience or solitaire games 5.1.1 Single player patiences or solitaires 5.1.2 Competitive patiences 5.2 Connecting games 6 Hand comparison games Toggle Hand comparison games subsection 6.1 Vying games 6.1.1 Poker games 6.2 Banking games 7 Miscellaneous games Toggle Miscellaneous games subsection 7.1 Compendium games 7.2 Combat games 8 Card games by objective Toggle Card games by objective subsection 8.1 Capturing games 8.2 Shedding games 8.3 Combination games 8.4 Comparing games 9 Drinking games 10 Proprietary games Toggle Proprietary games subsection 10.1 Collectible card games (CCGs) 10.2 Living card games (LCGs) 10.3 Simulation card games 11 Fictional card games 12 Typical structure of card games Toggle Typical structure of card games subsection 12.1 Number and association of players 12.2 Direction of play 12.3 Determining who deals 12.4 Hands, rounds and games 12.5 Shuffling 12.6 Dealing 13 Signalling 14 Rules Toggle Rules subsection 14.1 Rule infractions 15 Playing cards 16 See also 17 References 18 Bibliography 19 External links Toggle the table of contents Card game 79 languages Afrikaans Ænglisc العربية Asturianu अवधी Azərbaycanca تۆرکجه Беларуская Български বাংলা Català کوردی Čeština Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Esperanto Español Eesti Euskara فارسی Suomi Français Frysk Gaeilge Kriyòl gwiyannen Galego עברית हिन्दी Magyar Bahasa Indonesia Ido Íslenska Italiano 日本語 Jawa Қазақша ಕನ್ನಡ 한국어 Limburgs Lietuvių Latviešu Македонски മലയാളം Bahasa Melayu Nāhuatl Nederlands Norsk nynorsk Norsk bokmål Nouormand Deitsch Polski Português Română Русский Саха тыла Sicilianu سنڌي Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Simple English Slovenčina Slovenščina Српски / srpski Seeltersk Svenska Kiswahili தமிழ் తెలుగు ไทย Tagalog Toki pona Türkçe Українська اردو Tiếng Việt Walon 吴语 粵語 中文 Edit links Article Talk English Read Edit View history Tools Tools move to sidebar hide Actions Read Edit View history General What links here Related changes Upload file Permanent link Page information Cite this page Get shortened URL Switch to legacy parser Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikibooks Wikisource Wikidata item Appearance move to sidebar hide From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Game using playing cards as the primary device For other uses, see Card game (disambiguation). The Card Players, 17th-century painting by Theodoor Rombouts A card game is any game that uses cards as the primary device with which the game is played, whether the cards are of a traditional design or specifically created for the game (proprietary). Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card games played with traditional decks have formally standardized rules with international tournaments being held, but most are folk games whose rules may vary by region, culture, location or from circle to circle. Traditional card games are played with a deck or pack of playing cards which are identical in size and shape. Each card has two sides, the face and the back. Normally the backs of the cards are indistinguishable. The faces of the cards may all be unique, or there can be duplicates. The composition of a deck is known to each player. In some cases several decks are shuffled together to form a single pack or shoe. Modern card games usually have bespoke decks, often with a vast amount of cards, and can include number or action cards. This type of game is colloquially regarded as part of the broader "board game" hobby. Games using playing cards exploit the fact that cards are individually identifiable from one side only, so that each player knows only the cards they hold and not those held by anyone else. For this reason card games are often characterized as games of "imperfect information"—as distinct from games of perfect information, where the current position is fully visible to all players throughout the game.[1] Many games that are not generally placed in the family of card games do in fact use cards for some aspect of their play. Some games that are placed in the card game genre involve a board. The distinction is that the play in a card game chiefly depends on the use of the cards by players (the board is a guide for scorekeeping or for card placement), while board games (the principal non-card game genre to use cards) generally focus on the players' positions on the board, and use the cards for some secondary purpose. History [edit] 9th to 13th centuries [edit] Playing cards were likely invented during the Tang dynasty around the 9th century due to the technological impact of woodblock printing.[2][3][4][5][6] A 9th-century text known as the Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang (Chinese: 杜阳杂编; pinyin: Dùyáng zábiān) by Tang writer Su E references a leaf game that has been cited as a card game. However it is uncertain if it was actually a card game.[7][8][9][10] The reference describes Princess Tongchang, daughter of Emperor Yizong of Tang, playing the "leaf game" in 868 with her husband's family.[4][11][12] The first known book on the "leaf" game was called the Yezi Gexi and allegedly written by a Tang woman. It received commentary by writers of subsequent dynasties.[13] The Song dynasty (960–1279) scholar Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072) asserts that the "leaf" game existed at least since the mid-Tang dynasty and associated its invention with the development of printed sheets as a writing medium.[4][13] However, Ouyang also claims that the "leaves" were pages of a book used in a board game played with dice, and that the rules of the game were lost by 1067.[14] The earliest dated instance of a game involving cards occurred on 17 July 1294 when the Yuan dynasty Department of Punishments caught two gamblers, Yan Sengzhu and Zheng Zhugou, playing with paper cards. Wood blocks for printing the cards were impounded, together with nine of the actual cards. No description of the card game being played was provided.[14][15] Other games revolving around alcoholic drinking involved using playing cards of a sort from the Tang dynasty onward. However, these cards did not contain suits or numbers. Instead, they were printed with instructions or forfeits for whoever drew them. A playing card for a wine drinking game dating to the Yuan period (1271-1368) reads: Card #7: The man from Qi begs for leftovers Begging for leftovers is truly despicable, Not satisfied, he goes off elsewhere. His wife and concubine mock him in turn. But happily he comes home still wanting to brag. Instructions: He who gets this order receives an old cup of wine, drinks a little and then begs for wine and food from the guests. Then he brags. If there are courtesans in the party, they pretend to be his wife and concubine and scold him. If there are no courtesans, his two neighbours act as wife and concubine.[14] — History of Liao 14th and 15th centuries [edit] Trionfi sheet The earliest European mention of playing cards appears in 1371 in a Catalan language rhyme dictionary.[16] This suggests that cards may have been "reasonably well known" in Catalonia (now part of Spain) at that time, perhaps introduced as a result of maritime trade with the Mamluk rulers of Egypt.[17] It is not until 1408 that the first card game is described in a document about the exploits of two card sharps; although it is evidently very simple, the game is not named. In fact the earliest game to be mentioned by name is Karnöffel, first mentioned in 1426 and which is still played in several forms today, including Bruus, Knüffeln, Kaiserspiel and Styrivolt. Ronfa and Condemnade are also recorded during the 15th century.[18] Since the arrival of trick-taking games in Europe in the late 14th century, there have only been two major innovations. The first was the introduction of trump cards with the power to beat all cards in other suits; the other being the idea of bidding.[19] Such cards were initially called trionfi and first appeared with the advent of Tarot cards in which there is a separate, permanent trump suit comprising a number of picture cards.[19] The first known example of such cards was ordered by the Duke of Milan around 1420 and included 16 trumps with images of Greek and Roman gods.[20] Thus games played with Tarot cards appeared very early on and spread to most parts of Europe with the notable exceptions of the British Isles, the Iberian Peninsula, and the Balkans.[21] However, we do not know the rules of the early Tarot games; the earliest detailed description in any language being those published by the Abbé de Marolles in Nevers in 1637.[22][23] The concept of trumps was sufficiently powerful that it was soon transferred to games played with far cheaper ordinary packs of cards, as opposed to expensive Tarot cards. The first of these was Triomphe, the name simply being the French equivalent of the Italian trionfi. Although not testified before 1538, its first rules were written by a Spaniard who left his native country for Milan in 1509 never to return; thus the game may date to the late 15th century.[24][25][26] Others games that may well date to the 15th century are Gleek, Pochen – the game of Bocken or Boeckels being attested in Strasbourg in 1441[27] – and Thirty-One, which is first mentioned in a French translation of a 1440 sermon by the Italian, Saint Bernadine, the name actually referring to two different card games: one like Pontoon and one like Commerce.[28] 16th century [edit] François Rabelais’s giant Gargantua is depicted as a great player of card games In the 16th century printed documents replace handwritten sources and card games become a popular topic with preachers, autobiographists and writers in general. A key source of the games in vogue in France and Europe at that time is François Rabelais, whose fictional character Gargantua played no less than 30 card games, many of which are recognisable. They include: Aluette, Bête, Cent, Coquimbert, Coucou, Flush or Flux, Gé (Pairs), Gleek, Lansquenet, Piquet, Post and Pair, Primero, Ronfa, Triomphe, Sequence, Speculation, Tarot and Trente-et-Un; possibly Rams, Mouche and Brandeln as well.[29] Girolamo Cardano also provides invaluable information including the earliest rules of Trappola. Among the most popular were the games of Flusso and Primiera, which originated in Italy and spread throughout Europe, becoming known in England as Flush and Primero.[23] In Britain the earliest known European fishing game was recorded in 1522.[30] Another first was Losing Loadum, noted by Florio in 1591, which is the earliest known English point-trick game.[31] In Scotland, the game of Mawe, testified in the 1550s, evolved from a country game into one played at the royal Scottish court, becoming a favorite of Jam…