A poker deck of cards is made up of 52 cards and sometimes has extra cards not used for poker, called jokers. There are forty numbered cards and twelve face cards (Jack, Queen, King) in a poker deck. This is what’s known as a standard 52-card deck and you won’t hear most people refer to it as a “poker deck”.
Playing cards are almost always thick paper or card stock and generally fit into the palm of your hand. One of the most common decks of cards comes from the Bicycle Playing Cards company, which has been in business since 1885. There’s a good chance that there’s a box of these cards inside your home right now.
We’re going to cover 4-color decks, casino poker decks, and a couple of the rarest decks in history.
Things You Didn’t Know About Decks of Cards
1. Suits weren’t always Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, and Spades.
At different times in the past, card suits could be customized to reflect more individuality. Birds, sorcerers, and chalices were all used, including many other symbols.
2. Decks were used to show Allied prisoners how to escape German POW camps.
The deck had maps hidden between the two layers of card stock. With a bit of water, the layers could be peeled apart to reveal an escape map. These top-secret tools were called Escape Map Decks.
3. Decks have been made with many materials.
Paper and card stock weren’t always available, so card players had to be creative. Wood and bone were even used around the 9th century in China.
If you’re playing online poker and want to change your deck, navigate to your Table Settings and look for card settings.
Here’s How Casino Poker Decks Are Different
Casinos don’t go to the local Walmart for their poker decks; they usually have a direct link with a trusted playing card manufacturer. This gives the casinos a consistent level of quality and protects them from tampering.
Decks inside casinos are changed throughout the day, but how many times they change depends on the casino. As soon as damage or marks are noticed on playing cards, the dealer will call for a fresh deck of cards. Of course, online poker decks never have to change.
When casinos finish with a deck of cards, they almost always punch one or two holes through the entire deck. This is so that the cards can’t be slipped into a game and used for cheating.
Some casinos will let you purchase these decks, although that’s becoming less common.
The United States Playing Card Company supplies most of the casinos in the US. Brands like Bicycle, Bee, and Aviator are under their ownership.
Most poker sites like GGPoker let you customize the deck, with two and four-color options. As you’ll see below, we’ve gone with a nice gold backing and face cards for a two-color deck. Other things like the felt and background can also be changed.
Using a four-color deck is especially useful for pot-limit Omaha when you’ve got twice as many cards crammed side by side in your hand.
For anyone looking to test out online poker, GGPoker has a few big advantages. Firstly, they have free play tables, so you can test the great software without any risk. For real money players, some big bonuses are waiting. Get $50 in cash and tournament tickets, just for depositing $20. You can also decide to have your deposit matched 100%, up to $600.
GGPoker has thriving cash game tables and a wide selection of tournaments, all in Texas hold ‘em, Omaha, and short deck poker (6+).
BetOnline
Bitcoin and US-friendly room that allows HUDs
Americas Cardroom
Long-running room with lively cash games and eight-figure MTTs
Partypoker
Daily cash races, MTTs and Spins with big prizes
- Increased first deposit bonus
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- Access to private freerolls
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What is a Four-Color Poker Deck?
4-color decks of cards have been around for hundreds of years, but the colors have changed several times. One of the earliest surviving examples is called the Seminole Wars Deck from 1819. It had red hearts, green clubs, blue spades, and yellow diamonds.
Companies like the World Poker Tour use different colored suits for better visibility on television broadcasts.
It’s nice to quickly see how many cards of one suit you have, especially for online poker. If you’re multi-tabling, you want to be able to see all of the suits in one glance, without misreading. Almost all online poker sites let you switch to a 4-color deck.
The most common colorway for a four-color deck is red hearts, blue diamonds, green clubs, and black spades. Once you try four-color, you never go back.
If you’re not a fan of this new look, PokerStars still has 4 standard poker decks you can use.
Rare and Strange Poker Decks
This mid-15-century deck in The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the oldest and most ornate examples of early playing cards. They have a stretched oval shape and use symbols without numbers. A collector bought the deck for $2,800 in the 1970s and sold it to the Metropolitan Museum for $143,000 later.
The Mamluk cards are another set of playing cards from the mid-15th century, now safely inside the Topkapı Palace Museum in Istanbul. Only 43 out of the original 52 Mamluk cards still exist, and some of the remaining cards are quite damaged. They look nothing like the cards we use today, featuring complex golden and blue rectangular panels.
Play Mobile Poker From The Palm of Your Hand
Poker clubs are changing the way players find tables online. You’ll be free to choose which club you enter and face smaller groups of opponents. These apps have formats players want like Texas hold ‘em, Omaha, 6+ (short deck), and even Pineapple Poker.
One of the leading apps is PokerBros, which is available on iOS and Android devices. Players from all around the world can join and play cash games, or hop into one of the large tournaments regularly help on the app. If other apps or sites aren’t available in your area, PokerBros solves this. They offer modern cashier methods too, like cryptocurrencies, Skrill, Neteller, and Luxon.
