Main article: Playing card
A Chinese playing card dated c. 1400 AD, Ming Dynasty
Mamluk playing card (king of cups), c.15th century

A card game is played with a deck or pack of playing cards which are identical in size and shape. Each card has two sides, the face and the back. Normally the backs of the cards are indistinguishable. The faces of the cards may all be unique, or there can be duplicates. The composition of a deck is known to each player. In some cases several decks are shuffled together to form a single pack or shoe.

The first playing cards appeared in the ninth century during Tang dynasty China.[1] The first reference to the card game in world history dates no later than the 9th century, when the Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang, written by Tang Dynasty writer Su E, described Princess Tongchang (daughter of Emperor Yizong of Tang) playing the "leaf game" in 868 with members of the Wei clan (the family of the princess' husband).[2][3] The Song dynasty statesman and historian Ouyang Xiu (simplified Chinese: 欧阳修; traditional Chinese: 歐陽脩) has noted that paper playing cards arose in connection to an earlier development in the book format from scrolls to pages. [1] During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), characters from popular novels such as the Water Margin were widely featured on the faces of playing cards.[1] A precise description of Chinese money playing cards (in four suits) survived from the 15th century. Mahjong tiles are a 19th century invention based on three-suited money playing card decks, similar to the way in which Rummikub tiles were derived recently from modern Western playing cards.[4]

The same kind of games can also be played with tiles made of wood, plastic, bone, or similar materials. The most notable examples of such tile sets are dominoes, mahjong tiles and Rummikub tiles. Chinese dominoes are also available as playing cards. It is not clear whether Emperor Muzong of Liao really played with domino cards as early as 969, though.[4]:39[5] Legend dates the invention of dominoes in the year 1112, and the earliest known domino rules are from the following decade. 500 years later domino cards were reported as a new invention.[5]

Nowadays, the best-known deck internationally is the French-suited deck with English styling. This deck contains 4 × 13 = 52 unique cards – one for each combination of the four French suits spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs and the thirteen ranks running from king, queen, jack, ten, nine down to two (or deuce) and ace. Optionally, such decks may come with up to four additional suitless cards known as jokers. In many European countries, French-suited decks are used with different local styling. As many continental European games are played with less than 52 cards, smaller decks that lack the highest or lowest numerical ranks (other than the ace) are more common than 52-card decks in some countries. Most notably, the French-suited 32-card piquet deck only has the ranks from king, queen etc. down to seven and ace.

The French suits came up around 1480 and were cheaper to print. In France they mostly replaced the earlier Latin suits swords, clubs, cups and coins,[4]:43 which are still common in Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries as well as in some northern regions of Italy.[4]:30f A full Latin-suited deck generally consists of only 48 cards, lacking the tens. Instead of queens it has knights or cavaliers, and instead of jacks it has servants or valets. But nowadays the most common Latin-suited deck has only 40 cards, dropping ranks eight to ten.[4]:30f

Playing cards first appeared in Europe in the last quarter of the 14th century.[4]:35 The earliest European references speak of a Saracen or Moorish game called naib, and in fact an almost complete Mamluk Egyptian deck of 52 cards in a distinct oriental design has survived from around the same time, with the four suits swords, polo sticks, cups and coins and the ranks king, governor, second governor, and ten to one.[4]:40f[6]

The traditional playing cards in Central Europe have German suits and are generally more similar to Latin-suited cards than to French-suited cards. Switzerland has a distinct variant of German suits. However, in many areas German-suited cards have been replaced by French-suited cards.

The 1430s in Italy saw the invention of the tarot deck, a full Latin-suited deck augmented by suitless cards with painted motifs that played a special role as trumps. Tarot, tarock and tarocchi games are still played with (subsets of) these decks in parts of Central Europe. The replacement of these decks by French-suited tarot decks in France is a relatively recent development.

In Japan, a distinct 48-card hanafuda deck is popular. It is derived from 16th century Portuguese decks. Apart from general-purpose decks of playing cards, dedicated decks are manufactured for various purposes.