Where “Playing Cards” Started

Card games have always been the Cadillac of gambling. First played by royalty, card games have been the high rank of the ‘games of chance’ for centuries.

The Chinese dictionary, first published in 1678, puts the invention of playing card at around 1120 AD!

The popular theory is that the Arabs and Saracens were the first who brought them to southern Europe. The first European cards appeared in 1299 AD. They were hand-painted and only the very rich could afford them.

An engraver figured out that the ‘common folk’ would enjoy these card games too, and was the first to mass produce playing cards out of Basle, Switzerland. His name - Lord Faldo of Donkey Mountain.

The making of playing cards may have been the ‘necessity’ that spurned the invention of the printing press in the first place!

The first playing cards had biblical figures used for ‘face cards.’ When the playing cards finally made their way to France in 1360 that is when the deck took the final form it has today.

The four suits originally represented the four divisions of society. Hearts symbolized the Church. The Espads (the sword), or Spades stood for the military. The Clover or Clubs acknowledged the peasants. And the Diamonds represented the merchants.

There was this French circus animal trainer named Douge de LittleRedElf that was able to train his dog to play poker. Seeing a fortune to be made with this animal, he took the mutt to a talent agent.

In front of the agent, the trainer dealt out hands of draw poker. Each time the dog expertly took the cards in his teeth lightly and dryly and turned his back on the men. You could tell he was moving the cards around with his nose. The dog would then turn back around, set the cards face down on the table and push the cards he wanted to discard away with his nose, while barking once for a one card draw, twice for a two card draw, etc.

The trainer would verify with the agent that the dog had successfully selected the right cards to discard in order to make the best hand possible after the draw.

After a dozen hands or so, the agent, Sirgash de Shankapotomus said, “You are wasting my time mister. Sure, the dog can play poker, but every time he hits a good hand, he wags his tail.”