Sunday, 5 January 2014

Brief 2 - Research: 20 Facts

1 - Originally was the French version. The face cards in the deck were named after, and designed to look like, actual historical figures. The King of Hearts was Charlemagne; the King of Diamonds was Julius Caesar; the King of Clubs was Alexander the Great, and the King of Spades was King David from the Holy Bible.

2 - Playing cards was a popular form of entertainment in France. The rulers saw a way to make more money by taxing the Ace of Spades, and only that card in the deck. Aces were given the most open space so they could be stamped showing that the tax had been paid. Today, card manufacturers use the space to print their company information in, including trademark information.

3 - Specially-constructed decks were sent to American soldiers who were being held in German camps during World War II. The United States Playing Card Company collaborated with the government in the production of these cards. What made these cards so unique was, once they became wet, they peeled apart. Inside, the prisoners found parts of maps that would lead them to freedom.

4 - In the Renaissance, when art was popular, artists began to paint the backs of the cards with pictures, whereas they were previously blank. This idea of putting pictures on the back of cards came from Tarot cards.

5- When companies made playing cards around this era, often they printed cards that reflected political views of the times or supported a cause. An example of this is The Worshipful Company of Playing Cards. They controlled the printing and manufacture cards to raise money for the reign of King Charles the First. The Worshipful Company also started a tax on playing cards that lasted until 1920.

6 - The English name "Blackjack" comes from the original French game where a player was rewarded if he was to draw a Jack of spades and an Ace of spades as the first two cards.

7 - There is a special deck in Spain called Brisca. It also has four suits, but they are named differently. They are called oros(gold), espadas (swords), copas (cups), and bastos (clubs). This deck is used not only in Spain but in other countries where Spain maintained an influence.

8 - Face cards - Jacks, Queens, and Kings are called "face cards" because the cards have pictures of their names.

9 - "deuces, aces, one-eyed faces" is sometimes used in certain games to claim that the aces, twos and jacks are all wild. (the jack of spades and the jack of hearts are known as one-eyed jacks as they only have one eye showing.)

10 - Americans began making their own cards around 1800. They soon adapted the cards to remove any last problems. They decided to have double-headed court cards (to avoid the nuisance of turning the figure upright), varnished surfaces (for durability and smoothness in shuffling), indexes (the identifying marks placed in the cards’ borders or corners), and rounded corners (which avoid the wear that card players inflict on square corners).

11 - The most common sizes for playing cards are poker size 2.5×3.5 inches.

12 - Each of the suits on a deck of cards represents the four major pillars of the economy in the middle ages: heart represented the Church, spades represented the military, clubs represented agriculture, and diamonds represented the merchant class.

13 - In 1935, card manafacturers tried to introduce a fifth suit: green eagles (USA) and green crowns (UK)

14 - The 4 suits represent the four natural elements:  Hearts = Water, Clubs = Fire, Diamonds = Earth, Spades = Air

15 - Jacks were originally called knaves but the abbreviation (KN) was too similar to King (K) so it was changed in 1864.


16 -  In Bridge the cards are ranked. Spades are highest, then Hearts, Diamonds and finally Clubs.

17 - In other card games such as whist cards are ranked Spades, Diamonds, Clubs and then Hearts.

18 - There is a significant link between problem gambling if an individual:
  • Has a parent with a gambling problem.
  • Is divorced or separated.
  • Has low educational attainment.
  • Smokes cigarettes.
19 - If you spell out the cards from A-C-E to K-I-N-G then there are 52 letters.

20 - There are 75 casinos in Las Vegas


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