Card games are a popular pastime not only in Germany, but worldwide, and are also played professionally at tournaments. The following guide deals with classic card games such as poker, blackjack, and Doppelkopf, their color symbolism, value, and tricks. In addition, card games that are less well-known in Germany, such as Black Frog, Red Frog, and Hanabi, are also highlighted.
In card games there are four suits, which differ in value depending on the game.
Skat, Poker and Doppelkopf are now examined in more detail.
Symbolism of Suits: from Asia to Europe
How we perceive colors always has something to do with our cultural background. For example, the colors of the deck of cards, red and black, have different symbolism in different cultures.
In Asia, the color black symbolizes power, money, but also deep thoughts, hopelessness and a gloomy mood. In Asian culture, black is not a color of mourning, but is rather associated with profession, power and money.
Red represents life and is the color most associated with happiness among Asians. Joy, love and growth are symbolized by red. Red also conveys energy and can ward off evil forces. In addition, red represents the highest yang color and symbolizes the element of fire in Feng Shui. In Japan, however, red is also associated with aggression and danger.
In European countries, the color black symbolizes mourning, death, depression and worry. In France, black is also associated with jealousy. In Europe, as in Asia, red symbolizes love and fire. In addition, red can also be associated with passion, danger or aggression in European countries. In France, red also represents shyness and in Portugal, it represents war.
However, there are not two colors available in the card game, as many might think when looking at the black and red cards, but four. Clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds are each counted as a separate color. This is because the colors of the card game have changed several times throughout history. Early card games in Europe, for example, were red, green, yellow and black, according to the article “Black and red on winding paths”. Card games originally came from Asia and within Europe from Italy to Germany. But nobody in this country could make sense of the symbolism of the Italian cards and a new symbolism was developed. In Germany at that time, for example, there was the acorn, which was black, the leaves, which were green, the heart in red and the bell in yellow.
Ranking in Skat: Excursus: Color Play
The color game is the most frequently played game in Skat. The basic value of the game is determined by the suit of the game. In the color game in Skat, the following basic values are assigned to the individual suits:
- Hearts: 10
- Diamonds: 9
- clubs: 12
- Spades: 11
In a suit game there are always 11 trumps. All seven cards of the corresponding suit and the four jacks are counted. The jack of clubs is the highest trump, followed by the jack of spades, the jack of hearts and finally the jack of diamonds. Then come the cards of the announced trump suit.
Ranking in Poker: Excursus: Examples of Poker Hands
In poker, too, there is a certain ranking that determines victory or defeat. The best poker hand is the royal flush, a straight flush with the ace as the highest card value.
This is followed by the straight flush, which is five cards of the same suit in ascending order. One level below is the four of a kind. These are four cards of the same value, for example four jacks. The full house, three cards of the same value combined with a pair, is the next poker hand in the ranking, followed by the flush, which consists of five cards of the same suit. In the following PDF you can see all poker hands including explanations.
Doppelkopf Trump Order: Excursus: Special Rules
In Doppelkopf, each card has a certain point value, regardless of whether it is a trump (queen and jack of all suits, as well as hearts 10 and ace, king, 10 and diamonds 9) or not, and also regardless of its ranking. There are many special rules in the popular card game Doppelkopf.
The Cowardice Rule
This increases the risk for players with particularly good hands. If a team scores more than 210 points, regardless of whether it is Re or Kontra, but has not previously announced “Re” or “Kontra”, the points scored according to the normal count are credited to the opposing team.
The Game with the Joker
In some double-headed hands there is a joker. When playing with the joker, the joker is the highest trump in all games in which queens, jacks and duels are also trumps. In a game with nines, a nine of diamonds is replaced by the joker. The joker then counts as zero. In a game without nines, the king of diamonds is replaced by the joker, which then counts as four points. An additional trump in the game is therefore in clubs, spades and hearts solos.
Diamond kings as foxes
When diamond kings are foxes, it may be that during the game a decision must be made as to whether it is more important to pierce the suit with the diamond ace or to bring home the fox, that is, the diamond king. Both preferences fall on one card when the diamond aces are the foxes.