Top: Games: Card Games: Traditional Playing Cards
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A complete set of cards is called a pack or deck. The pack usually has 52 cards divided into 4 groupings known as suits. Each suit has 13 cards of different ranks.
- Each suit is distinguished by a symbol on the face of the card. These are a black spade, a black club, a red diamond and a red heart. The suits are all of the same status depending on the rules of each particular game.
- Each suit has 13 ranked cards from Ace (1), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen and King. In many games the Ace is ranked higher than the King. In that case the lowest numeral is 2.
- Some games include an odd card, usually depicted by a clown or jester, which is known as the Joker card. There may be two of these.
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In many card games the cards are played sequentially around a table with each player placing a card on top the previous card. One round of cards is played and this is known as a trick .
Sometimes it is desirable to win tricks while at other times it might be necessary to loose the trick.
A trick usually follows these rules.
The first player leads a card (or places it in the table).
The suit of the card led must usually be followed by the next player if they have a card of that suit.
If they do not have one of the same suit they are said to be void in that suit and will play some other suit. There is usually a penalty for not following suit if there is a card of the led suit in the players hand.
The player who plays the highest-ranking card of the suit that was led wins the trick.
The trick's winner earns the right to start the next round and chooses the suit to be led.
There are an almost infinite number of variations on this general set of rules.
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