Better Poker

Cards were not introduced into Medieval Europe until the second half of the 14th century.  At this time they were referred to as “Saracen Cards,” and were brought to Europe by merchants.  Cities were burgeoning with rural folk who had survived the Plague and moved to the urban centers.  Here, they became a new group of middle class merchants and craftspeople.  With the easing of the poverty and ignorance that marked the middle ages, new trade groups, guilds, and universities began to emerge once again, and science was no longer relegated to sorcerers.  There was more time for the pursuit of pleasure, leisure, and play.

Books, cards, and prints were produced by hand during the early Renaissance period.  Artists and scientists came together and became the moving force behind the spread of card games throughout Italy.  Many illustrated card-manual manuscripts began to show up in a number of major cities including Viterbo near Rome in Italy, Paris and Barcelona by the late 14th century. Traveling scholars and artists were responsible for card games gaining in popularity and becoming more widespread.  Where once a single craftsman in early 15th century could satisfy the demand for cards in a city, by the mid 15th century, many shops worked full time to fulfill the need.

Because this was a somewhat foreign form of amusement, not everybody embraced it.  Some felt it threatened the fabric of society’s mores and morals.  They saw it as a game where gamblers and bettors were in cahoots with the devil.  During the protestant Reformation cards were rather dramatically referred to as “devil pictures.”

No matter or because of this devilish image, card playing stood its ground.  The English queen, Mary, Queen of Scots not only bet big, but bet on Sunday!  The Compleat Gamester was published in London in the late 17th century, with descriptions of over a dozen types of card games and the winning strategies involved in their play.   In Venice, specific types of facilities called casini allowed admittance of aristocrats and courtesans to indulge in games of cards.  It was here that a game called primero was invented and spread throughout the continent to later morph into poker.

In time, women as well as men, farmers and merchants as well as courtesans and nobles were able to enter the games and found symbols of themselves represented in the cards.  A Swedish deck that became very much the rage, was comprised of these suits in order of ranking: sun, king, queen, knight, dame, valet and maid.  Those ribald Florentines played with cards that pictured nude dames and dancers, with the dancers being the low suit.

There was no standard number of cards or designs in a deck at that time.  The number of cards could vary from 36 to 40 to 52.  The suits of the time were symbolic of wealth, tasty victuals, military defense, and sports popular with the court.  These were coins, cups, sabers, and clubs.  Signs familiar to us were in use in France in the 15th century: in red, Couers (Hearts) stood for the church, carreaux (a rectangular floor tile) represented the merchant class; in black, there were piques (spear and arrow heads) depicting state authority, and trefles (trefoil clover leaf) as a sign of the farmers.  Some brave soul at one point along the way ditched the vice-royals for queens.

After a period of time, the deck of cards that we know today took form.  52 cards with 13 ranks comprising 4 distinct suits.  The suits include Spades, Diamonds, Hearts, and Clubs with  the Ace, King, Queen, and Jack counting for ten and the rest of the cards, 2 through 10, being counted at their face value.

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