Standard 52-card deck

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A set of 52 playing cards of the Rouennais or English pattern by Piatnik & Söhne

French playing cards is the most common deck of playing cards used today. It includes
thirteen ranks of each of the four French suits: clubs (♣), diamonds (♦), hearts (♥) and spades
(♠), with reversible "court" or face cards. Some modern designs, however, have done away
with reversible face cards. Each suit includes an ace, depicting a single symbol of its suit; a
king, queen and jack, each depicted with a symbol of its suit; and ranks two through ten, with
each card depicting that many symbols (pips) of its suit. Anywhere from one to six (most
often two or three since the mid-20th century) jokers, often distinguishable with one being
more colorful than the other, are added to commercial decks, as some card games require
these extra cards.[1] Modern playing cards carry index labels on opposite corners or in all four
corners to facilitate identifying the cards when they overlap and so that they appear identical
for players on opposite sides. The most popular standard pattern of the French deck is
sometimes referred to as "English" or "Anglo-American" pattern.[2]

It has been shown that because of the large number of possibilities from shuffling a 52-card
deck, it is probable that no two fair card shuffles have ever yielded exactly the same order of
cards.[3]

Contents
 1 English pattern cards and nicknames

 2 Size of the cards

 3 Rank and color

 4 Unicode

 5 See also

 6 Notes
  7 References

English pattern cards and nicknames

For a comprehensive list of card nicknames, see List of playing card nicknames.

The fanciful design and manufacturer's logo commonly displayed on the ace of spades began
under the reign of James I of England, who passed a law requiring an insignia on that card as
proof of payment of a tax on local manufacture of cards. Until August 4, 1960, decks of
playing cards printed and sold in the United Kingdom were liable for taxable duty and the ace
of spades carried an indication of the name of the printer and the fact that taxation had been
paid on the cards.[notes 1] The packs were also sealed with a government duty wrapper.

Though specific design elements of the court cards are rarely used in game play and many
differ between designs, a few are notable.

 Face cards - jacks, queens, and kings are called "face cards" because the cards have
pictures of their names.

 One-eyed Royals - the jack of spades and jack of hearts (often called the "one-eyed
jacks") and the king of diamonds are drawn in profile; therefore, these cards are
commonly referred to as "one-eyed". The rest of the courts are shown in full or
oblique face.

 The jack of diamonds is sometimes known as "laughing boy".

 Wild cards - When deciding which cards are to be made wild in some games, the
phrase "acey, deucey or one-eyed jack" (or "deuces, aces, one-eyed faces") is
sometimes used, which means that aces, twos, and the one-eyed jacks are all wild.

 The king of hearts is the only king with no mustache;

 Suicide kings - The king of hearts is typically shown with a sword behind his head,
making him appear to be stabbing himself. Similarly, the one-eyed king of diamonds
is typically shown with an axe behind his head with the blade facing toward him.
These depictions, and their blood-red color, inspired the nickname "suicide kings".

 The king of diamonds is traditionally armed with an axe while the other three kings
are armed with swords; thus, the king of diamonds is sometimes referred to as "the
man with the axe". This is the basis of the trump "one-eyed jacks and the man with
the axe".

 The ace of spades, unique in its large, ornate spade, is sometimes said to be the death
card or the picture card, and in some games is used as a trump card.

 The queen of spades usually holds a scepter and is sometimes known as "the bedpost
queen", though more often she is called "black lady".
  In many decks, the queen of clubs holds a flower. She is thus known as the "flower
queen", though this design element is among the most variable; the Bicycle Poker
deck depicts all queens with a flower styled according to their suit.

 "2" cards are also known as deuces.

 "3" cards are also known as treys.

Size of the cards

Imperial measure (inches) Metric measure (mm)[4]
Category
Length Width Length Width
Bridge size
3 1⁄2 2 1⁄4 88.9 57.15
Poker size
3 1⁄2 2 1⁄2 88.9 63.50

Modern playing cards are most commonly referred to as either 'poker' or 'bridge' sized;[5]
nominal dimensions are summarized in the adjacent table. Notwithstanding these generally
accepted dimensions, there is no formal requirement for precise adherence and minor
variations are produced by various manufacturers.[6]

The more narrow cards are more suitable for games such as bridge in which a large number
of cards must be held concealed in a player's hand. Nevertheless, in most casino poker games,
the bridge-sized card is used; the use of less material reduces manufacturing costs and since a
casino may use thousands of decks per day, the total savings are significant. Other sizes are
also available, such as a smaller 'patience' size (usually 1 3⁄4 × 2 3⁄8 inches (44 × 60 mm)) for
solitaire and larger 'jumbo' ones for card tricks.

The thickness and weight of modern playing cards is subject to numerous variables related to
their purpose of use and associated material design for durability, stiffness, texture and
appearance.[7]

Rank and color

Some decks include additional design elements. Casino blackjack decks may include
markings intended for a machine to check the ranks of cards, or shifts in rank location to
allow a manual check via inlaid mirror. Many casino decks and solitaire decks have four
indices instead of just two. Many modern decks have bar code markings on the edge of the
face to enable them to be sorted by machine (for playing duplicate bridge, especially
simultaneous events where the same hands may be played at many different venues). Many
decks have large indices, largely for use in stud poker games, where being able to read cards
from a distance is a benefit and hand sizes are small. Some decks use four colors for the suits
in order to make it easier to tell them apart: the most common set of colors is black (spades
♠), red (hearts ♥), blue (diamonds ♦) and green (clubs ♣). Another common color set is
borrowed from the German suits and uses green spades and yellow diamonds with red hearts
and black clubs.
When giving the full written name of a specific card, the rank is given first followed by the
suit, e.g., "ace of spades". Shorthand notation may reflect this by listing the rank first, "A♠";
this is common usage when discussing poker. Alternately, listing the suit first, as in "♠K" for
a single card or "♠AKQ" for multiple cards, is common practice when writing about bridge;
this helps differentiate between the card(s) and the contract (e.g. "4♥", a contract of four
hearts). Tens may be either abbreviated to T or written as 10.

Example set of 52 playing cards; 13 of each suit clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades
Quee
Ace 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Jack King
n

Clubs

Diamond
s

Hearts

Spades

Unicode
As of Unicode 7.0 playing cards are now represented. Note that the following chart ("Playing
Cards", Range: 1F0A0–1F0FF) includes cards from the Tarot Nouveau deck as well as the
standard 52-card deck.

Playing Cards[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

U+1F0A � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �
x � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �
U+1F0B � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �
x � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �
U+1F0C � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �
x � � � � � � � � � � � � � �
U+1F0D � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �
x � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �
U+1F0Ex � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �
 � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �

U+1F0Fx
� � � � � �
� � � � � �
Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 10.0
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

See also
 French playing cards

 Stripped decks come with fewer ranks

 500 decks come with extra ranks

 Tarot Nouveau, the most common French-suited tarot game deck

Notes
1.

1. Stamp Act 1765 imposed a tax on playing cards.

References
1.

� McLeod, John. Games played with French suited cards at pagat.com. Retrieved 17 April
2017.
� � The English pattern at the International Playing-Card Society. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
� � "The Amazing Truth About a Deck of Cards". KnowledgeNuts.
� � The poker size is associated with the B8 size according to ISO 216
� � Kem Cards official website. Narrow (Bridge) Size verses Wide (Poker) Size, retrieved
2014-02-27.
� � In a sample of 95 bridge and poker card sets, lengths ranged from 87.50 mm to
89.50 mm. In a sample of 28 bridge sized cards, widths varied from 56.98 mm to 58.25 mm.
In a sample of 67 poker sized cards, widths varied from 62.44 to 63.54 mm. Reference: Home
Poker Tourney website. Playing Card Review, retrieved 2014-02-27.

1. � In a sample of 28 bridge sized cards, the weight of a card varied from 1.8 g
to 2.48 g and thickness from 0.26 mm to 0.34 mm. In a sample of 67 poker sized
cards, the weight of a card varied from 1.4 g to 2.78 g and thickness from 0.24 mm to
0.34 mm. Reference: Home Poker Tourney website. Playing Card Review, retrieved
2014-02-27.
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