Playing Cards
A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a Paper#Finishing, finish to make handling easier. They are most commonly used for playing card games, and are also used in magic tricks, cardistry, card throwing, and house of cards, card houses; cards may also be collected. Playing cards are typically palm-sized for convenient handling, and usually are sold together in a set as a deck of cards or pack of cards. The most common type of playing card in the West is the French-suited, standard 52-card pack, of which the most widespread design is the English pattern, followed by the Belgian-Genoese pattern. However, many countries use other, traditional types of playing card, including those that are German-suited, German, Italian-suited, Italian, Spanish-suited, Spanish and Swiss-suited. Tarot ca ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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German-suited
German-suited playing cards are a very common style of traditional playing card used in many parts of Central Europe characterised by 32- or 36-card packs with the suit (cards), suits of Acorns (suit), Acorns (''Eichel'' or ''Kreuz''), Leaves (suit), Leaves (''Grün'', ''Blatt'', ''Laub'', ''Pik'' or ''Gras''), Hearts (suit), Hearts (''Herz'' or ''Rot'') and Bells (suit), Bells (''Schelle'', ''Schell'' or ''Bolle''). The German suit system is one of the oldest, becoming standard around 1450 and, a few decades later, influencing the design of the now international French suit system of Clubs, Spades, Hearts and Diamonds. Today German-suited playing cards are common in south and east Germany, Austria, German-speaking Switzerland, Liechtenstein, north Italy, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, northern Serbia (Vojvodina province), southern Poland and central and western Romania. History Playing cards (''Spielkarten'') originally entered German-speaking l ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Trick Deck
A trick deck is a deck of playing cards that has been altered in some way to allow magicians to perform certain card tricks where sleight of hand would be too difficult or impractical. Trick decks Brainwave deck The Brainwave deck is a lesser-known deck which is gaining in popularity, it operates on a principle similar to that of the Invisible Deck, but has vastly improved on it. With the cards still in their box, the magician asks a spectator to name a card. The magician pulls the deck out and fans the cards face down, then spreads through the deck until a single face-up card is discovered, which turns out to be the spectator's card. For the grand finale the magician explains that he or she actually knew ahead of time which card the spectator would select, rather than having secretly turned it over during the performance. He or she then proceeds to prove this by turning the spectator's card over and revealing that the card in question features a different backing pattern than ev ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Magician (illusionist)
Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of close-up magic, parlor magic, and stage magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means. It is to be distinguished from paranormal magic which are effects claimed to be created through supernatural means. It is one of the oldest performing arts in the world. Modern entertainment magic, as pioneered by 19th-century magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, has become a popular theatrical art form. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, magicians such as John Nevil Maskelyne and David Devant, Howard Thurston, Harry Kellar, and Harry Houdini achieved widespread commercial success during what has become known as "the Golden Age of Magic", a period in which performance magic became a staple of Broadway theatre, vaudeville, and music halls. Meanwhile, magicians such as Georges Méliès, Gaston Velle, Walter R. Booth, and O ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Casino
A casino is a facility for gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, concerts, and sports. Etymology and usage ''Casino'' is of Italian language, Italian origin; the root means a house. The term ''casino'' may mean a small country villa, Summerhouse (building), summerhouse, or social club. During the 19th century, ''casino'' came to include other public buildings where pleasurable activities took place; such edifices were usually built on the grounds of a larger Italian villa or palazzo, and were used to host civic town functions, including dancing, gambling, music listening, and sports. Examples in Italy include Villa Farnese and Villa Giulia, and in the US the Newport Casino in Newport, Rhode Island. In modern-day Italian, a is a brothel (also called , literally "closed house"), a mess (confusing situation), ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ganjifa
Ganjifa, Ganjapa or Gânjaphâ, is a card game and type of playing cards that are most associated with Persia and India. After Ganjifa cards fell out of use in Iran before the twentieth century, India became the last country to produce them.At the start of the 21st Century production in India was still ongoing in the town of Sawantvadi in the west, and Odisha in the east for example. See Abram (2003: 53) and Crestin-Billet (2002: 189). The form prevalent in Odisha is Ganjapa. Description Ganjifa cards are circular or rectangular, and traditionally hand-painted by artisans. The game became popular at the Mughal Empire, Mughal court, and lavish sets were made, from materials such as precious stone-inlaid ivory or tortoise shell (''darbar kalam''). The game later spread to the general public, whereupon cheaper sets (''bazâr kalam'') would be made from materials such as wood, palm tree, palm leaf, stiffened cloth or pasteboard. Typically Ganjifa cards have coloured backgrounds, with ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chinese Playing Cards
Playing cards () were most likely invented in China during the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279). They were certainly in existence by the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271-1368).Lo, Andrew. (2000)The Game of Leaves: An Inquiry into the Origin of Chinese Playing Cards Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 63(3), 389–406. Chinese use the word ''pái'' (), meaning "plaque", to refer to both playing cards and tiles.Lo, Andrew (2004) 'China's Passion for Pai: Playing Cards, Dominoes, and Mahjong.' In: Mackenzie, C. and Finkel, I., (eds.), Asian Games: The Art of Contest. New York: Asia Society, pp. 217-231. Many early sources are ambiguous, and do not specifically refer to paper ''pái'' (cards) or bone ''pái'' (tiles); but there is no difference in play between these, as either serves to hide one face from the other players with identical backs. Many western scholars, like William Henry Wilkinson, Stewart Culin, Thomas F. Carter, and Michael Dumme ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hanafuda
() are a type of Japanese playing cards. They are typically smaller than Western playing cards, only , but thicker and stiffer. On the face of each card is a depiction of plants, , animals, birds, or man-made objects. One single card depicts a human. The back side is usually plain, without a pattern or design of any kind, and traditionally colored either red or black. are used to play a variety of games including and . Outside Japan In Korea, are known as (, Hanja: ) and made of plastic with a textured back side. The most popular game is ''Go-Stop, Go-stop'' (), commonly played during special holidays such as Korean New Year, Lunar New Year and (). In Hawaii, is used to play Sakura (card game), Sakura. is also played in Micronesia, where it is known as and is used to play a four-person game, which is often played in partnerships. History Playing cards were introduced to Japan by the Portuguese in the mid-16th century. The Portuguese-suited playing cards, Portugues ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cartomancy
Cartomancy is fortune-telling or divination using a deck of cards. Forms of cartomancy appeared soon after playing cards were introduced into Europe in the 14th century.Paul Huson, Huson, Paul (2004). ''Mystical Origins of the Tarot: From Ancient Roots to Modern Usage''. Vermont: Destiny Books. Practitioners of cartomancy are generally known as ''cartomancers'', ''card readers'', or simply ''readers''. Cartomancy using standard playing cards was the most popular form of providing fortune-telling card readings in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The standard 52-card deck is often augmented with joker (playing card), jokers or even with the blank card found in many packaged decks. In France, the 32-card piquet stripped deck is most typically used in cartomantic readings, although the 52 card deck can also be used. (A piquet deck can be a 52-card deck with all of the 2s through the 6s removed. This leaves all of the 7s through the 10s, the face cards, and the aces.) In Englis ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tarot Card Reading
Tarot card reading is a form of cartomancy whereby practitioners use tarot cards to purportedly gain insight into the past, present or future. The process typically begins with formulation of a question, followed by drawing and interpreting cards to uncover meaning. A traditional tarot deck consists of 78 cards, which can be split into two groups, the Major Arcana and Minor Arcana. French-suited playing cards can also be used; as can any card system with suits assigned to identifiable elements (e.g., air, earth, fire, water). History The first written references to tarot packs occurred between 1440 and 1450 in northern Italy, for example in Milan and Ferrara, when additional cards with allegorical illustrations were added to the common four-suit pack. These new packs were called , triumph packs, and the additional cards were simply known as trionfi (cards), trionfi, which became "trumps" in English. One of the earliest references to tarot triumphs appears around c. 1450–1470 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Divination
Divination () is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic ritual or practice. Using various methods throughout history, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a should proceed by reading signs, events, or omens, or through alleged contact or interaction with supernatural agencies such as ghost, spirits, gods, god-like-beings or the "will of the universe". Divination can be seen as an attempt to organize what appears to be random so that it provides insight into a problem or issue at hand. Some instruments or practices of divination include Tarot card reading, Tarot-card reading, Runic magic, rune casting, Tasseography, tea-leaf reading, automatic writing, water scrying, and psychedelics like psilocybin mushrooms and DMT. If a distinction is made between divination and fortune-telling, divination has a more formal or ritualistic element and often contains a more social character, usually in a religion, religious context, as se ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tarot Card
Tarot (, first known as '' trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a set of playing cards used in tarot games and in fortune-telling or divination. From at least the mid-15th century, the tarot was used to play trick-taking card games such as Tarocchini. From their Italian roots, tarot games spread to most of Europe, evolving into new forms including German Grosstarok and modern examples such as French Tarot and Austrian Königrufen. Tarot is most commonly found in many countries, especially in English and Spanish speaking countries where tarot games are not as widely played, in the form of specially designed cartomantic decks used primarily for tarot card reading, in which each card corresponds to an assigned archetype or interpretation for divination, fortune-telling or for other non-gaming uses. The emergence of custom decks for use in divination via tarot card reading and cartomancy began after French occultists made elaborate, but unsubstan ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |