The Joker Card Wasn’t in the Playing Card Set!

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

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

Playing cards at first only had 52 cards, without the Joker. The Joker card has its own ‘suit’ or suit, and is not related to any of the other four suits namely clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades. Let’s examine the origin of the Joker being able to be strong and often underestimated.

History of Jokers

Let’s start with a game called Euchre. Euchre is a card game with the trick-taking mechanics responsible for introducing the Joker card first to the modern deck of playing cards as we know it today. Euchre was first introduced between the 18th and 19th centuries, and it was only in 1850 that the Joker was added to playing card decks in the United States solely for the purpose of playing the game of Euchre.

Joker is thought to have come from the German spelling Euchre, namely ‘Juker’ or ‘Juckerspiel.’ The English printer Charles Goddall first began producing packs 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 the joker to use it as a ‘wild card’ or yes ‘Joker’. In the late 1940s, a pair of Jokers became common in playing card decks in America. The American Contract Bridge League was founded and thrived as did the Canasta game, which dominated the 1950s.

Today, Euchre is mostly seen in the US Navy and in several states of the American Midwest.

Joker Function

In the coninepokerclassic card deck there is now a pair of Jokers. These cards become wild cards, aka multi-purpose cards, sometimes they become replacement cards if there are cards that are lost or damaged in the deck of playing cards. 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 might just 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.

Joker cards have played a wide role in the realm of playing card games and over the years, their use has grown exponentially.

Have you ever used the Joker when playing with a Remi card deck?

If you’re tired of playing cards, find a game that’s no less exciting than dozens of available Indonesian board games that can be ordered through Tokopedia or Shopee, the Indonesian Boardgame Gallery.