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The Joker in Poker

Joker is considered as one of the mysterious cards in the deck. The elusive joker lives between the Ace of Hearts and the King of Spades! It is believed that the “joker” card is discovered by American Euchre players, who while revising the rules of poker games sometimes during 1860s, decided that an extra trump card is needed at the game.

Initially, Joker was called the “best bower” and later “the jolly joker” or the “little joker”. Around the same time, other innovations and developments began to appear in the card, like rounded corners instead of the squared and other types of corner indices.

Being introduced first into the American pack of cards in 1863, these joker cards were regarded as the extra cards. It took several more years to reach the English pack of cards, around 1880. One British manufacturer by the name of Chas Goodall, was manufacturing packs of cards with Jokers for the American market in 1870s. This specific Joker card is not taken into consideration by many of us while playing other card games, is capable of almost nothing and almost anything, depending on the rules of the game you are playing. In 1999, someone named Dianne Longley suggested that the Joker is the ‘wild-card, or the card of opportunity.

This is like the philosophy of chances and uniqueness which has been the driving force behind America’s pursuit of prominence. It has been seen by some historians that the Joker as a successor of the “Fool of Italian tarot cards”, and in some of the 19^th century tarot sets, the fool was depicted as a buffoon or harlequin.

There are usually two jokers in a standard deck. The Joker’s use varies greatly. In many card games, the Joker card is omitted entirely; as a result of which, the Jokers are often used as informal replacements for the damaged or lost cards in a deck by simply nothing the lost card’s rank and suit on the Joker.

A number of early Jokers were particularly designed, along with Aces of Spades, as part of the company’s brand identity. Hence, they can also help in identification. Many poker game players are largely fascinated in certain cards such as Jokers, Aces of Spades, unique backs, court cards, etc. The Joker card has also turned into a collector’s item for its interesting history and evolution. Also, Joker Poker is a series of video poker that is offered by most online casinos. It is played with a deck of 53 cards, the extra card that is the Joker substitutes for other cards in order to make a winning poker hand!

Keep reading GutshotMagazine.com for more ‘Poker Gyaan’ articles.

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