Suits and values – the tricks of the most popular card games in the world
Card games are a popular pastime not only in Germany, but worldwide, or are played professionally at tournaments. The following guide deals, among other things, with card game classics such as poker, blackjack or double head, their color symbols, value as well as tricks and tricks. In addition, less well-known card games such as Black Frog, Red Frog or Hanabi are also highlighted in Germany.
There are four suits in card games, which differ in value depending on the game.
Skat, Poker and Doppelkopf will now be considered in more detail.
Symbolism of the suits: from Asia to Europe
How we perceive colors always has something to do with our cultural background. For example, the colors of the deck, red and black, have different symbolism in different cultures.
In Asia, the color black symbolizes power, money, but also deep thoughts, hopelessness and a gloomy mood. Black is not a mourning color in Asian culture, but is more associated with work, power and money.
Red represents life and is the color most associated with luck among Asians. Joy, love and growth are symbolized by red. Red also conveys energy and can ward off evil forces. In addition, red represents the highest yang color and symbolizes the element fire in Feng Shui. However, in Japan, red is also associated with aggression and danger.
In European countries, the color black is symbolic of mourning, death and depression and worry. In France, black is also associated with jealousy. As in Asia, red also symbolizes love and fire in Europe. In addition, red can also be associated with passion, danger or aggression in European countries. In France, red also represents shyness and in Portugal, war.
When playing cards, however, there are not two colors available, as many might think when looking at the black and red cards, but four. Clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds are each counted as a separate suit. This is because the suits of the deck have changed several times throughout history. For example, early decks of cards in Europe were red, green, yellow, and black, according to the article Black and Red on Twisted Paths. Card games originally came from Asia and within Europe from Italy to Germany. But in this country nobody could do anything with the symbolism of the Italian cards and a new symbolism was developed. In Germany at that time, for example, the acorn was black, the leaves were green, the heart was red, and the bell was yellow.
Ranking in Skat: Digression: Color game
The suit game is the most commonly played game in skat. The base value of the game is determined by the color of the game. In the game of suits in skat, the individual suits are assigned the following basic values:
● hearts: 10
● Diamonds: 9
● Clubs: 12
● Spades: 11
In a suit game there are always 11 trumps. All seven cards of that suit and the four jacks are counted. The Jack of Clubs is the highest trump, followed by the Jack of Spades, the Jack of Hearts and finally the Jack of Diamonds. This is followed by the cards of the announced trump suit.
Ranking in poker: Digression: examples of poker hands
In poker, too, there is a certain ranking that decides whether you win or lose. The best poker hand is the royal flush, a straight flush with the ace as the highest card.
This is followed by the straight flush, i.e. five ascending cards of one suit. One level below is the quadruplet. These are four cards of the same rank, for example four jacks. The full house, three cards of the same rank combined with a pair, is the next poker hand in the ranking, followed by the flush, which consists of five cards of one suit. In the following PDF you can see all poker hands including an explanation.
Doppelkopf trump order: digression: special rules
In Doppelkopf, each card has a certain point value, regardless of whether it is trump (queen and jack of all suits, as well as 10 of hearts and ace, king, 10 and 9 of diamonds) or not and also regardless of its ranking order. There are many special rules in the popular card game Doppelkopf.
The rule of cowardice
This increases the risk of players with particularly good hands. If a team scores more than 210 points, regardless of whether Re or Kontra, but has not previously announced “Re” or “Kontra”, the points scored according to normal counting are credited to the opposing team.
The game with the joker
There is a joker in some double-headed hands. When playing with the joker, the joker is the highest trump in all games in which queens, jacks and duels are also trumps. If a game is played with nines, a nine of diamonds is replaced by the joker. The joker then counts as zero. In a game without nines, the king of diamonds is replaced by the joker, which is then worth four points. An additional trump card is thus in clubs, spades and hearts solos.
Kings of diamonds as foxes
When kings of diamonds are foxes, a decision may have to be made during the game as to whether it is more important to pierce the suit with the ace of diamonds or to bring home the fox, ie the king of diamonds. Both preferences fall on one card if the aces of diamonds are the foxes.