Card game

A card game is any game where cards are the main tool for play, whether those cards are traditional or custom-made for that specific game. There are countless card games, including families of related games like poker. Only a small number of card games using standard decks have official rules and international tournaments; most are folk games, with rules that differ by region, culture, location, or even from one group of players to another.

Traditional card games use a deck of cards that are all the same size and shape. Each card has a face and a back. The backs are usually identical, while the faces may be unique or include duplicates. Players know the composition of the deck. Sometimes multiple decks are shuffled together into a single pack or shoe. Modern card games often have custom decks, sometimes with many cards, and may include number or action cards. These games are often considered part of the broader "board game" hobby.

Card games take advantage of the fact that cards are identifiable from only one side, so each player knows only their own hand, not anyone else’s. This makes card games typically games of "imperfect information," unlike games of perfect information where the whole situation is visible to all players. Many games not usually classified as card games still use cards for some part of their play.

Some games in the card game genre include a board. The key difference is that in a card game, play depends mainly on how players use the cards (the board just helps keep score or place cards), while board games focus on players’ positions on the board and use cards for a secondary purpose.

**History**

**9th to 13th centuries** Playing cards were likely invented during the Tang dynasty around the 9th century, thanks to woodblock printing. A 9th-century text, the *Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang* by Tang writer Su E, mentions a "leaf game" that some consider a card game, though it’s unclear if it really was one. The text describes Princess Tongchang, daughter of Emperor Yizong of Tang, playing this leaf game in 868 with her husband’s family. The first known book on the leaf game, *Yezi Gexi*, was supposedly written by a Tang woman and later commented on by writers of later dynasties. Song dynasty scholar Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072) claimed the leaf game existed at least since the mid-Tang dynasty and linked its invention to the development of printed sheets as a writing medium. However, Ouyang also said the "leaves" were pages from a book used in a dice-based board game, and that the rules were lost by 1067.

The earliest dated instance of a card game happened on July 17, 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 seized, along with nine of the cards themselves. No description of the game was given.

Other games, often involving drinking, used playing cards from the Tang dynasty onward. These cards had no suits or numbers; instead, they were printed with instructions or forfeits for whoever drew them. A Yuan-period (1271–1368) wine-drinking card 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."

**14th and 15th centuries** The earliest European mention of playing cards appears in a 1371 Catalan rhyme dictionary. This suggests cards were "reasonably well known" in Catalonia (now part of Spain) by then, possibly introduced through maritime trade with the Mamluk rulers of Egypt. Not until 1408 is the first card game described, in a document about two card sharps; the game is very simple but unnamed. The first game mentioned by name is Karnöffel, first recorded in 1426, which is still played in forms like Bruus, Knüffeln, Kaiserspiel, and Styrivolt. Ronfa and Condemnade are also recorded from the 15th century.

Since trick-taking games arrived in Europe in the late 14th century, only two major innovations have occurred. The first was the introduction of trump cards that could beat all cards in other suits; the second was the idea of bidding. These trump cards were initially called *trionfi* and first appeared with Tarot cards, which have a separate, permanent trump suit of picture cards. The first known example was ordered by the Duke of Milan around 1420 and included 16 trumps showing Greek and Roman gods. Games with Tarot cards spread quickly across most of Europe, except the British Isles, the Iberian Peninsula, and the Balkans. The rules of early Tarot games are unknown; the earliest detailed description in any language came later.