The Joker card was not in the card deck!

Have you ever wondered why the deck of playing cards sometimes includes a joker card? Even when you play Joker, you never play too, right? At least in some game variants that can be played with a deck of cards, you don’t need a joker. From Hoes, 41, Hearts, Capsa to Texas Hold ‘Em Poker, they don’t use cards that often have images of clowns on them.

So if it’s not used, what is its role in the game? Why only this card and when did it first appear?

At first, the cards only had 52 cards, without the joker. The Joker card has its own ‘suit’ or suit, and is unrelated to any of the other four suits, namely clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades. Let’s examine the origin of the fact that the Joker can be strong and often underestimated.

pranksters story

Let’s start with a game called Euchre. Euchre is a card game with trick-taking mechanics responsible for introducing the Joker card for the first time into the modern deck of cards as we know it today. Euchre was first introduced between the 18th and 19th centuries, and it was not until 1850 that the Joker was added to decks of playing cards in the United States for the sole purpose of playing the game of Euchre.

Joker is believed to come from the German spelling Euchre, meaning «Juker» or «Juckerspiel». English printer Charles Goddall began producing decks of playing cards with the Joker inside for the American market in the 1870s.

The next sighting of the use of the Joker was seen in 1875. The growth rate of this evolution of the Joker led to the Joker being used as a ‘joker’ or yes, ‘Joker’. In the late 1940s, a pair of jokers became common in decks of playing cards in the United States. The American Contract Bridge League was founded and prospered just like the Canasta game, which dominated the 1950s.

Today, Euchre is seen primarily in the US Navy and several states in the Midwestern United States.

wildcard function

In modern decks of playing cards there is now a pair of jokers. These cards become jokers, also known as all-purpose cards, sometimes becoming replacement cards if there are cards that are lost or damaged in the deck. This is done by simply recording the number/rank and type of card that is lost and then replaced by the Joker.

The Joker card could be an easy and cheap way instead of having to bother buying and opening new decks every time just because you accidentally lose one or it breaks. It also makes sense that when the playing deck was first printed there was still space left on the printed sheet, instead of being empty, the space was filled by the Joker we are used to today.

Jokers have played an important role in the realm of card games, and over the years their use has grown exponentially.

Have coninepokerclassic readers ever used Joker when playing with a deck of Rummy cards?

If you are bored with playing cards, find a no less exciting game among the dozens of Indonesian board games that are available and can be ordered through Tokopedia or Shopee, Indonesia’s board game gallery.