Meaning: Deck of Cards

Original meaning of a deck of playing cards

52 cards for 52 weeks in the year
2 colors for day and night
4 suits for the 4 seasons, 13 cards per suit for 13 weeks per season
12 face cards representing the 12 months

If we add the value of all the cards (Ace =1, King =13) we will get 364. With one joker it's 365, two jokers used in leap year.

(extracted and modified from an X.com post)

Is this historical BS? Or is there something to it?

This is far-fetched. Let me give you another far fetched coincidence: the word “news” is composed of north, east, west, and south.

The 78 card deck was more popular in the Middle Ages but the church pushed the 52 deck we currently use, with one exception- Aces were the lowest card. Some poker games in the West used a 20-card deck, and others used a 36-card six

Quote: billryan

The 78 card deck was more popular in the Middle Ages but the church pushed the 52 deck we currently use, with one exception- Aces were the lowest card. Some poker games in the West used a 20-card deck, and others used a 36-card six
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Are you referring to tarot cards, the Major and Minor Arcana? The Minor Arcana I recall is similar to a standard 52-card deck.

I suppose there's no good reason you couldn't play card games with them. What have you got to lose? (Besides your soul of course!)

Literally no way any of this is true. I don't feel like explaining why because it's approaching cosmic levels of bullshit but I'll give one anecdote:

Jokers are a fairly modern invention, dating to the mid-1800s. Decks with two jokers weren't mass-produced until the 1940's. By the 1950's, European countries were making decks with 3-6 jokers. When they added those jokers, they were not thinking about year-length and pseudo-gematria.

I've often wondered when the Ace became top card in so many games

Quote: googleBot

The ace became the top card in some games shortly after 1500, with the popularization of this change being linked to the French Revolution around 1789. The promotion of the ace to the highest card, originally the lowest, was a symbolic representation of the common people overthrowing the monarchy and the nobility. However, there is evidence that aces were considered high in certain games as early as the 16th century.

Quote: AutomaticMonkey

Quote: billryan

The 78 card deck was more popular in the Middle Ages but the church pushed the 52 deck we currently use, with one exception- Aces were the lowest card. Some poker games in the West used a 20-card deck, and others used a 36-card six
link to original post

Are you referring to tarot cards, the Major and Minor Arcana? The Minor Arcana I recall is similar to a standard 52-card deck.

I suppose there's no good reason you couldn't play card games with them. What have you got to lose? (Besides your soul of course!)
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The Tarock deck (like "Industrie und Glück") is used for games as well as some cartomancy.
Of possible interest, they include a fourth court rank, the Cavalier.

I've always seen these rules as arbitrary. Why is the 10 ranked just under the ace in pinochle? No good reason and the game wouldn't play any differently if you used the normal ranks of the cards. Why do the suits have the order they have in bridge? They just do. These were probably all the house rules in some tavern and they happened to get published first and caught on.

Quote: AutomaticMonkey

I've always seen these rules as arbitrary. Why is the 10 ranked just under the ace in pinochle? No good reason and the game wouldn't play any differently if you used the normal ranks of the cards. Why do the suits have the order they have in bridge? They just do. These were probably all the house rules in some tavern and they happened to get published first and caught on.
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The Version I Heard Was, suit order in bridge is in reverse alphabetical order in English (S, H, D, C).

While pinochle would play the same if standard ordering is used, you have to remember that the original scoring system is Ace = 11, Ten = 10, King = 4, Queen = 3, Jack = 2. Having a ten be worth 10 probably just made more sense. I have no idea how Ace, Ten, King = 10 (or 1, for that matter) originated.
(The easiest way to tell what Pinochle scoring system is being used: ask how many points a King is worth - 4, 5, 10, or 1?)