General Rules That Apply to All Card Games
Standard packs
Throughout history cards have been known to bare different suits, and different compositions of cards. Some Indian games have been known to bare up to 16 suits. Some games use full packs, others stripped packs. A stripped pack is a deck from which some cards have been removed to accommodate the rules of a particular game. Other games, however, may require that a pack be assembled out of 2 or more decks (either full-packs or stripped-packs).
• French-suited packs
The standard 52-card French-suited pack contains four suits, each identified by its symbol, or "pip": spades
, hearts
, diamonds
, and clubs
. There are thirteen cards of each suit: ace (A), king (K), queen (Q), jack (J), 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. Wherever a game is said to require 52 cards, reference is to this standard pack.
A fifty-third card, the joker, and a fifty-fourth card, which may be used as an extra joker, are usually furnished with the standard 52-card pack and may become part of the pack if the rules of the game require it.
• German-suited packs
German packs bare suits of acorns, leaves, hearts, and bells (sometimes mistaken for pumpkins). A typical German pack consists of 48 cards: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, lower-jack, upper-jack, and king. Note that a German pack does not contain aces, instead the deuce is the highest ranking card, and is often mistaken for and ace, although it bares two suit marks. Some games require a stripped German pack with 36, 32, or even fewer cards.
• Latin-suited packs
Latin-suited packs are believed to be the earliest European packs and are believed to have evolved from Islamic cards. They are generally divided into Spanish-suited cards and Italian-suited packs. However, some other latin styles have also been recognized, such as Portuguese.
◊ Spanish-suited packs
The Spanish suits are swords, batons, cups and coins. A full Spanish pack consists of 48 cards. In each suit there are normally 12 cards; those with numerals 1 to 9 and picture cards labeled 10, 11 and 12. The picture cards are a jack (or maid), a horseman, and a king. Some games use only 40 cards, omitting the 8 and 9.
A 40-card Spanish style pack is used in parts of Italy for games such as Briscola and Scopa. These cards are sometimes called Italo-Spanish. The 40-card Spanish pack is also in use in several north African countries, and in many Latin American countries, including Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia and Peru.An expanded 112-card Spanish pack is used in the Philippines for Cuajo.
◊ Italian-suited packs
Italian-style cards are found mostly in North-East Italy. They bare suits of swords, batons, cups and coins. Usually they come as 40-card packs with numerals 1 to 7 and three picture cards in each suit, but they are also made as 52 card packs with numerals 1 to 10 for certain regional Italian games. Trappola packs have 36 cards: ace, king, knight, jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 2 in each suit. Trappola cards ceased to be produced in the mid twentieth century, though related games survive tenuously using substitute packs.
A Tarot pack is a pack that has been expanded from 52 cards to 78, by adding one extra court card and a special series of trump cards called trionfi. In effect the Tarot pack consists of 56 suited cards, called the minor arcana cards, and 22 permanent trump cards, called the major arcana.
The 56 minor arcana cards consist or 14 cards in 4 suits. These are 10 number cards, running from ace to 10; and 4 court cards, jack, knight (cavalier), queen, and king. Since the court cards in the earliest pack did not include a queen it is in effect the queen that has been added to the pack, and not the knight, as is the common misconception from today's perspective of the popular 52-card pack. Furthermore, the earliest Tarot packs were Italian-suited, since they evolved from the Italian-suited pack. However, the French-suited Tarot pack is by far the most common one today.
The 22 major arcana cards do not bare any suits. They are numbered either with Roman numerals or with Arabic numbers. The highest trump card, which has a special value, is usually left unnumbered, but it is in effect the 22 (or XXII).
A Tarock pack is in effect a stripped 54-card Tarot pack. It evolved in Austria and is very popular in the neighboring country of Slovenia. This pack consists of all 22 major arcana cards (called tarocks) and 32 mini arcana cards. The minor arcana cards are divided into the 4 honors (the court cards) and the 4 scartins (the pip cards). The honors always rank higher than the scartins, however the scartins are again divided into two groups. The scartins of the black suit are 10 (highest), 9, 8, 7; and the scartins of the red suit are ace (highest), 2, 3, 4.
The Draw
There are several methods for determining partnerships, seats at the table, right to deal first, and so on. The most common method is as follows: the pack is shuffled and then spread face down on the table, with the cards overlapping. Each player draws one card, but none of the four cards at each end of the pack may be drawn. The rank of the cards so drawn determines partnerships, and so forth. If two or more players draw cards of the same rank, in some games, the rank of suits usually breaks the tie. Spades are ranked first, followed by hearts, diamonds, and clubs. For example, a six of spades outranks a six of diamonds. In some card games, however, if two or more players draw cards of the same rank, suits do not apply, and the players must draw again.
Rotation
The right to deal, the turn to bid, and the turn to play all rotate clockwise–that is, from each player to his left-hand neighbor.
The Shuffle
Any player at the table has the right to shuffle the pack (and as a matter of common practice, this right remains even where special rules of a game designate one player responsible for shuffling). In most games, the dealer has the right to shuffle last, and this is the rule when no different provision is stated.
The Cut
Cutting is the act of dividing the deck into two packets and transposing the bottom packet to the top. The custom is for the dealer to present the pack, after shuffling, to his right-hand neighbor, who lifts a packet from the top and sets it down beside the bottom packet. The dealer completes the cut by placing the bottom packet on top of the other.
Each packet of the cut must contain a minimum of cards, which varies in different games, but is usually four or five.
First Player
This term refers to the left-hand neighbor of the dealer. Although this term is not used in all games, and other equivalent terms are encountered (such as "First Hand"), the player in this position bids first in some games and plays first in most games.
The Deal
In most games, the first card dealt goes to the "first player," and the cards are distributed in clockwise rotation. The number of cards dealt at one time varies and is expressly stated for every game. The rule may be "one at a time," or "two at a time," or more at a time, but the same number of cards is dealt to every player in any one round. Sometimes the quota varies from round to round. For example, the rule to "deal 3-2" means, to deal a round of three cards at a time, then a round of two cards at a time.
Unless otherwise noted, all cards must be dealt face down so that no player can see the face of a card dealt to another. If a card is found face up in the deck, it is usually a cause for declaring a misdeal.
Misdealing
It is a universal rule that when a player requests it, there must be a new deal by the same dealer if the customary or prescribed rules of shuffling, cutting, and dealing are breached in any way. Usually the request may no longer be made by a player who has looked at any of the cards dealt to him, or by any player after the prescribed deal has been completed.