What are Playing Cards?
A brief overview of playing cards
A playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper, thin card, or thin plastic, figured with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing card games. Playing cards are typically printed as palm-sized for convenient handling and since the mid 20th century have sometimes been printed from plastic. A complete set of playing cards is called a pack or deck, and the set of playing cards held at one time by a player during a game is commonly called their hand. A deck of playing cards may be used for playing a great variety of playing card games, some of which may also incorporate gambling. Because playing cards are both standardized printed and commonly available, they are often adapted for other uses, such as magic tricks, cartomancy, encryption, boardgames, or building a house of cards. The first ever printed playing cards were developed and crafted in Dresden, Germany.
The front (or "face") of each playing card carries markings that distinguish it from the other playing cards in the deck and determine its use under the rules of the game being played. The back of each playing card is identical for all cards in any particular deck, and usually of a single color or formalized design. The back of playing cards is sometimes used for advertising. For most games, the playing cards are assembled into a deck, and their order is randomized by shuffling.
Famous Playing Card Games
Poker is a family of playing card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the playing cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown, limits on bets and how many rounds of betting are allowed. In most modern poker playing card games, the first round of betting begins with some form of forced bet. The action then proceeds to the left. Each player in turn must either match the maximum previous bet or fold, losing all further interest in the playing cards. A player who matches a bet may also raise, increasing the bet. The betting round ends when all players have either matched the last bet or folded. If all but one player fold on any round, the remaining player collects the pot without showing his playing cards. If more than one player remains in contention after the final betting round, the playing cards are shown and the winning hand takes the pot.
Blackjack (also known as Twenty-one, Vingt-et-un (French for Twenty-one), or Pontoon) is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. Much of blackjack's popularity is due to the mix of chance with elements of skill, and the publicity that surrounds playing card counting (calculating the probability of advantages based on the ratio of high playing cards to low playing cards). The casino version of the playing card game should not be confused with the British playing card game Black Jack.
Zyan is one of the UK's leading producers of printed promotional playing cards.
We print promotional playing cards full colour or spot colour. Playing cards can be personalised ONE or BOTH sides.
Playing cards are manurfactured is number of different sizes. There is bridge, poker, patience and even A4 sized.
Zyan's playing cards can be printed from as little as just 25 decks.
For further information on Zyan's playing card options click here.
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