You are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

4
-4

[–] 22015329? 4 points -4 points (+0|-4) ago  (edited ago)

House of Cards Continued <

Part 4 >

Special Augmented decks contain extra cards such as these 11's. Augmented Deck: Although somewhat rare, another special deck sometimes seen is the augmented deck. This is a deck containing 62 cards. In addition to all the standard cards in the normal 52 card deck, this deck also includes an 11 in each suit, a 12 in each suit and a 13 in two suits (usually one red suit and one black suit). The usual ranking of the cards in such a deck are similar to that in a normal deck (from highest to lowest); Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 13 (in the two suits that contain it), 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. This deck is used for some special variations of Five Hundred, Cassino and several other card games. A Joker is also often added to this deck to create a 63 card deck.

In addition to these commonly used modified decks, the standard deck can be stripped or combined with cards from additional decks in a number of other ways for use in a variety of different games. In general the description of a game will indicate the specific makeup of the deck required in order to play that particular game. In some instances, a deck may be modified to accommodate the specific number of players in the game, and this will also be described with any game in which this is done.

There are also a number of proprietary card games which are played with special cards designed and marketed specifically for that particular game. These games can sometimes be satisfactorily played with a standard deck, usually with some substitutions occurring for certain cards in the deck. Another type of card game, currently very popular are a wide variety of collectible card games. In these games, each players deck is usually comprised of different cards, and is built specifically by the player after purchasing special collector packs for a particular game.

Regional Playing Card Decks

The standard card deck most commonly encountered when playing cards is what is normally called the French deck. This is the deck which is most familiar to the majority of card players and is described in detail above. In addition to this French deck there are a number of other decks that will be encountered when playing games of cards. The are usually specific to certain countries, localities or for a specific game.

The Four German Playing Card Suits German Deck: The Germanic deck is a deck that is often used in Germany and other locations in central Europe. The German deck is similar to the French deck in that it contains four suits in various denominations. However, the standard German deck usually contains only 32 cards, and the suits, although somewhat similar, are of a different design. The fours suits in the German deck (in which the suit designs of the French deck were derived) are called Hearts, Bells, Acorns and Leaves. The denominations of the cards are also similar, however the Jacks and Queens are replaced by the Under Knave (called Unter in German) which resembles a Knight and the Over Knave (called Ober). There is one card of each denomination in every suit. The usual ranking of the cards in the German deck is thus as follows (from highest to lowest): Ace, King, Over Knave, Under Knave, 10, 9, 8, 7. This deck is often used for games of originally Germanic origin, such as Schafkopf and International Skat.

In the absence of such a deck, the more common French deck can be used for these games by removing from the deck all cards of denominations 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Sometimes hybrid decks are seen, particularly during International Skat tournaments. These feature the familiar French suits but the colors are different to somewhat resemble the German suits. In this case, the spades are colored green, Diamonds yellow, Clubs black and Hearts are red. These decks often (but not always) contain the usual Jack and Queen vice the Over and Under Knaves.

Swiss Deck: The Swiss deck is very similar to the German deck. The Swiss deck features the following four suits; Bells, Shields, Roses and Acorns. The denominations commonly found in a Swiss Deck are as follows (listed from highest to lowest ranking); Ace, King, Over Knave, Under Knave, 10 (called Banner), 9, 8, 7, 6. This deck is mostly used in the German speaking regions of Switzerland, and often used for playing the card game Jass.

Similar to the German deck, a regular French deck can be modified to resemble a Swiss Deck by removing all cards of the following denominations; 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Latin Deck: This deck, also often called the Spanish deck is the deck often used in Spain and many other Spanish speaking locales. This deck contains four suits and nine denominations in each suit. The four suits included in the Spanish deck are Cups, Swords, Gold Coins and Clubs. Additionally, the Jack and Queen are replaced with a Knave and Knight respectively. The usual ranking in the Spanish deck is thus (from high to low); 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, Knave, Knight, King. These decks are usually packaged with two Joker cards which can be used as wild cards in many games. A Spanish deck consisting of 48 cards is also sometimes found. This deck adds one card in each suit of the denominations 8 and 9. The standard Latin deck is most often encountered in Spain, South America, the Philippines, Mexico and parts of North Africa, France and Italy. This deck is used for many Spanish games such as Ombre, Truco, and Brisca.

The standard French Deck can be used when playing games that require a Spanish deck by removing the following card denominations from the French deck; 8, 9, 10. The ranking in the Spanish deck is also somewhat unusual, with the usual ranking as follows (listed high to low); King, Jack, Queen, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace.

Italian Deck: The Italian playing card deck is almost identical to the standard Latin deck. It uses the normal suits from the Latin deck and the face cards featured are usually the Knave, Knight and King. The Italian deck consists of 40 cards in the following denominations (ranked from high to low); 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, Knave, Knight, King. The only real difference between the Italian and Latin deck is that the cards in the Italian deck usually have a more Italian inspired design. The Italian deck is used in Northern Italy as well as in parts of Dalmatia, Montenegro and Switzerland. Games which might use this deck include Scopa and Briscola.

END