Varying by colors, numbers and shapes, the set of 52 playing cards, figured with distinguishing motifs have been entertaining us for years. Games played with cards can be seen from our low stake tables in our garage to the tables with the highest stakes at WSOP. The cards are now not only used for playing card games, but are adapted for other uses, such as magic tricks, telling fortunes using cartomancy, and things like building a house of cards. It can pretty much be said that playing cards are now part of our lives. Though it is not hard to get a chance to play cards with anyone, it is pretty difficult to figure out what language is spoken at the table on the first try.
Most of the times, the newcomers are not familiar with the terms at the playing card table. Everything depends on the game that is played at the table, but there are a couple of common terms used in most games. A complete set of cards is called a pack or most often a deck of cards or just deck. The games start when the cards are mixed or shuffled and are distributed to the players, and the act of distributing card is called dealing cards. The set of cards that are distributed to each player becomes the player抯 hand. All of the cards have a front and a back. The front, or face, of each card carries markings that distinguish it from other cards and the backside has a design that is made so that the cards cannot be distinguished from each other. The cards should be held so that the face of the card faces the player that owns the hand and also so that the other players cannot glance at the hands.
The main phase of the game starts after the cards are dealt to all the players. Most of the time, the single cards are ranked depending their numbers, where number two is the lowest and ten is the highest. The J, Q, K or Jack Queen and the King cards, which are called the royalties, are ranked higher than the numbers in their order in most, if not all games. The A or the ace, which represent the number one, can be used as either the number one, or the highest card.
Along with numbers, there are shapes on each card to separate the numbers. The shapes are called suits. There are four suites: Spade, Diamond, Heart, Club. The spade, which is the highest in suit ranking, is shaped like a leaf, colored in black, and is the highest ranked card. Often times, the Ace of Spade has a big spade in the middle rather than a regular spade, due to a tradition started from taxes. The diamond, colored in red, is the second in ranking and is shaped like a rhombus shaped like a four-sided diamond. The third in ranking is the heart, colored in red, shaped like the heart. The club, the lowest rank of the four suits, is colored black and takes the shape of a three-leaf clover.
Each card game is played differently, but the terms here stand in most games, so do not be hesitant to play a game because of the unfamiliar terms now and go out there and enjoy yourself.
