A Trip Back In Time: Card Games

Blackjack and poker are some of the most popular card games in the world. But how did they come to be?

Seems like all you poker winners have China to thank for card games and online poker sites in the US… Even before 1000 AD, some variety of card games existed in China. They looked more like dominoes, and were made out of paper. Believe it or not, dominoes made out of wood (as we know them,) came much later. Dominoes still are called money card, a fact that contests to cards being the predecessors of dominoes.

• China saw card-like games first
• Introduced to Europe by a Moor person
• Blackjack was “21” in French

In the Chronicles of Viterbo, an Italian village saw the arrival of the card game in 1379. The following quote lets us know that cards where introduced to Europe by the Moorish: “In the year 1379 there was brought to Viterbo the game of cards, which in the Saracen language is called ‘nayb.’” There were many references to people playing cards and purchasing stacks all over Europe, like Brussels and Constance and later in Barcelona, Marseille, Lille etc. Card games were on a roll and their popularity spread due to the easy nature of games that could be played with them.

Unfortunately, there are no remaining cards from the 1300’s

Since mobile betting sites were not really a hit then (I wonder why…) people chose to live a social life while playing cards. The oldest cards known to us that survived time, according to Slideshare, come from the 15th century. Back then, cards were something special: painted by hand and purchased only by nobles, because they were too pricey for peasants. Soon, however, with the creation of woodcuts, people in Europe started to produce cards by the thousands. When it comes to the suit systems of cards, three main ones evolved.

The first one was the Latin suit, used by people living in Spain Italy and Portugal. The Germanic suit became the second group, and it was used naturally by the Germans and Swiss. Finally, the French suit – used obviously by the French. These three types provide an ongoing foundation for card images and systems yet to come. Let’s start with the most well-known type of suit: the French. We know the Hearts, Clubs, Spades and Diamonds all too well, and no wonder: these designs were the first to be exported to England, for instance. Talk about the French conquering the British…

Card stories from the Germans and Italians

German cards were a bit more illustrious, more imaginative. Like in mobile casinos, they made up vivid designs and characters; cards almost looked like pages from a children’s storybook. Finally, they, too, managed to settle of four suits: Acorns, Hawk Bells, Leaves and Hearts. Tarot cards developed thanks to Italians, who kept imagery strong in their cards, too. The Queen, the King, the Knight, the Valet and the “Fool” are all Italian cards. From their card system, the Tarocco, another type of card evolved: the Tarot cards. Nowadays, they are used by fortune-teller to predict the future.

According to The World Of Playing Cards, the origin of Blackjack is a tough cookie. There are no specific resources that would indicate that it is an ancient, or for that matter, incredibly old. Most historians believe that it was a card game played at French casinos in the 1700’s. Back then, however, it was called Vingt-Et-Un. The game spread, and although it had slightly different rules, (for instance, only the dealer could double,) it eventually arrived to Nevada in 1931. A fact that further supports this theory, is that the card game was still called Vingt-Et-Un in the US for a while.