The Joker is a playing card found in most modern French-suited card decks, as an addition to the standard four suits (Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, and Spades). Since the second half of the 20th century, they have also been found in Spanish- and Italian-suited decks, excluding stripped decks.
The Joker originated in the United States during the Civil War, and was created as a trump card for the game of Euchre. It has since been adopted into many other card games, where it often acts as a wild card, but may have other functions such as the top trump, a skip card (forcing another player to miss a turn), the lowest-ranking card, the highest-value card, or a card of a different value from the rest of the pack (see e.g. Zwicker which has six Jokers with this function).
The idea behind the three top cards in Euchre appears to have originated from Germany where the games Juckerspiel and Bester Bube ("Best Bower") also used Jacks as best, right and left bowers. It is also believed that the term "Joker" comes from Juckerspiel, which is also known as Jucker, the original German spelling of Euchre.[7][8] One British manufacturer, Charles Goodall, was manufacturing packs with Jokers for the American market in 1871.[9] The first Joker for the domestic British market was sold in 1874.[10] Italians call Jokers "Jolly", for many early cards were labelled "Jolly Joker".[11]
The notion of a Joker was later transferred to the game of Poker where it was initially called the Mistigris.[12] This happened around 1875, where it functioned as a wild card.[13] Packs with two Jokers started to become the norm during the late 1940s for the game of Canasta.[14][15][16] Since the 1950s, German and Austrian packs have included three Jokers to play German Rummy. In Poland, the third Joker is known as the blue Joker because the KZWP monopoly during the Polish People's Republic printed all third Jokers blue. In Schleswig-Holstein, Zwicker packs come with six Jokers.[17]
Jokers do not have any standardized appearance across the card manufacturing industry. Each company produces their own depictions of the card. The publishers of playing cards trademark their Jokers, which have unique artwork that often reflect contemporary culture.[18] Out of convention, Jokers tend to be illustrated as jesters. There are usually two Jokers per deck, often noticeably different. For instance, the United States Playing Card Company (USPCC) prints their company's guarantee claim on only one. At times, the Jokers will each be colored to match the colors used for suits; e.g., there will be a red Joker and a black Joker. In games where the Jokers may need to be compared, the red, full-color, or larger-graphic Joker usually outranks the black, monochrome, or smaller-graphic one. If the Joker colors are similar, the Joker without a guarantee will outrank the guaranteed one. With the red and black Jokers, the red one can alternately be counted as a Heart/Diamond and the black one can alternately be counted as a Club/Spade. The Unicode for playing cards provide symbols for three Jokers: red, black, and white.
Many decks do not provide the Joker with a corner index symbol; of those that do, the most common is a solid star (as is the case with Bee cards). It is also common for decks to simply display the word "JOKER" in the corner. Bicycle cards use a "US" monogram as the Joker index.
Joker collecting has been popular for an unknown amount of time, but with the advent of the Internet and social media, it has emerged as a hobby. Many unusual Jokers are available for purchase online, while other collectible Jokers are catalogued online for viewing. Guinness World Records has recognized Denoto de Santis, an Italian magician, as having the world's largest collection of Jokers.[19]
The Joker is often compared to "(the) Fool" in the Tarot or Tarock decks. They share many similarities both in appearance and in play function. In central Europe, the Fool, or Sks, is the highest trump; elsewhere as an "excuse" (L'Excuse) that can be played at any time to avoid following suit, but cannot win.
The Joker can be a very beneficial card or a bad card to have. In Euchre it is often used to represent the highest trump. In Gin Rummy it is wild. However, in the children's game of Old Maid, a solitary Joker represents the Old Maid, the card to be avoided.
Burraco is related to Canasta, and in some ways similar to Samba, in that the aim is to meld combinations of seven or more cards that can be either sets of equal rank or sequences in a suit. Like several of the newer games of this family it also features a second hand of cards which is picked up by the first member of a partnership who disposes of all the cards from their first hand. It originated in South America, probably in the 1940's, and is still widely played there. Since the 1990's a version of the game has become extremely popular in Italy, and thanks to an active tournament scene and the establishment of a national organisation, the Federazione Italiano Burraco, the Italian rules have become more or less standardised.
The usual game is four players in fixed partnerships: North and South play against East and West. There are less interesting versions for 2 to 5 players, playing as individuals. Deal and play are clockwise.
A sequence consists of three or more consecutive cards of the same suit, the order of the cards being (A)-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q-K-(A). At most one wild card (two or joker) may be included in a sequence and may be used as a substitute for a missing card. However, a two of the correct suit may also serve as a natural card (next below the three), in which case it is possible for a sequence to contain two twos or a two and a joker. An ace can be placed at either end of a sequence, above the king or below the two, but it is not legal to place two aces in a sequence, one at each end. However a sequence can contain a wild card in addition to 13 different natural cards. It is possible for one team to have two separate sequence melds in the same suit, but sequences once placed on the table cannot be joined together or split. Examples of valid sequences:
A meld that consists entirely of natural cards is clean (pulito) and a meld that contains a wild card is dirty (sporco). A meld of seven or more cards is called a burraco, and earns a bonus for the team that owns it: a clean burraco scores more than a dirty one. A sequence that contains a two of the correct suit in its place is of course clean. A burraco is usually indicated by placing its last card crosswise if it is dirty, or its last two cards crosswise if it is clean, as shown below.
The first player who gets rid of the last card from his or her hand picks up takes the first pozzetto of 11 cards to use as a new hand. The second pozzetto is taken by the first player of the other team who runs out of cards. There are two ways to take a pozzetto.
Note that it is not legal to go out by melding all one's cards. A final discard is always required. Also, it is not legal to go out if one's team does not have a burraco. If your team has taken a pozzetto but you do not have and are unable to make a burraco, then you must keep at least two cards in your hand after melding: one to discard and another to hold in your hand to continue playing.
Some play that a burraco of 8 or more cards that contains a sequence of 7 consecutive natural cards and a wild card or consists of at least 7 equal cards with a wild card, is "semi-clean" (semipulito) and is worth 150 points. This is indicated by placing the second to last card crosswise.
Some play that in case of a stalemate, after all four players in turn have done nothing but take a single card from the discard pile and discard, the play does not end. Instead, the next player in turn must end the stalemate by drawing a card from the draw pile.
Burraco for three players. Each player is dealt 11 cards and there are two pozzetti: one of 18 cards and one of 11. The first player who melds all his or her cards takes the 18-card pozzetto and plays alone. The other two play as partners and the first of them to meld all their cards takes the second pozzetto. The play and scoring are the same as in the four-player game, the partners dividing their total score between them. Note that in this game there is no point in melding cards before the partnerships are determined, until you are able to put down your whole hand and take the first pozzetto (a possible exception is if you have a complete burraco in your hand).
Burraco for two players. Each player is dealt 11 cards and there are two pozzetti of 11 cards each. The play and scoring are exactly as in the four-player game, but since you have no partner there is no advantage in putting down melds unless you are able to take your pozzetto or fear that your opponent will go out before your next turn.
I like the idea of "wildcard," particularly in the computing sense: as a placeholder for anything, however I want something that sounds more like a last name than just using "wildcard." (I also don't want my name to be poor translation, like a regrettable tattoo of a Chinese character that actually means "spicy chicken.")
In the searching I've done, "fera" seems to more commonly refer to wild animals in particular, rather than a more general wild: "ferox," which seems like more of the meaning I'd like to capture (headstrong, courageous, fierce), but "ferox" does not combine together as well into a name, in my opinion.
There is a board game in (Oxford) Corpus Christi library, Alea Evangelii, with four special pawns which (some think) change mid-game; they're called the multicoloured pawns, or the speckled pawns: varii viri, varios viros. But perhaps that's too far from your original idea. Varia mulier, Varia femina, Varia iuvenis.
Ne gry is rare Latin for 'not a hint,' 'not a jot.' Gry is a non-committal grunt, so the wild idea is preserved. And 'gry' is a word borrowed from Greek, a grunt; with the alternative roots 'gryx, gryz' from the verb. So that's quite sophisticated. How about Grycarta ?
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