The game gained marked popularity during the American civil war and consolidated itself in the southern United States, especially in the area of the Mississippi where it was played on the paddle steamers traversing the great Mississippi river.The Jokers Wild variation adds one joker card into the pack of 52 which can represent any card.

A Contract Rummy variant contributed by Matthew Pryor .

Introduction

• Golden Jokers Wild Slot Machine. Golden Jokers Wild is a simple and straightforward slot machine from Greentube that has traditional cherries, lemons, oranges and red 7’s on the 3 reels, but spices things up a little with a special Joker.
• Even skeptics will be baffled by the visual impact of Jokers Wild. There are a wide variety of card routines than can be performed with this packet trick. As a finale, you can transform the five Jokers into any cards you choose, giving you a special opportunity to make the trick your own.

Ten Card Rummy is a version of contract rummy first known to have been played in the air-raid shelters in London during the 1941 Blitz. It is similar to ‘May I?’, but is more straight forward and easier to play. It is one of the best card games for larger (more than 4) number of players, making it a very friendly, family favourite.

Players

The game may be played by four to eight players, but is best when played by five, six or seven players.

Cards

For four, five and six players, Ten Card Rummy is played with two standard decks of 52 cards, plus four jokers, for a total 108 cards. For seven and eight players, an extra deck of 52 cards, and two further jokers are added to make a total 162 cards.

Dealing

There are eleven rounds. The dealer for the first round is chosen at random. In subsequent rounds the deal passes to the left (rotates clockwise).

At the start of each round, players receive 10 cards, one card at a time. The remaining cards are placed face down in the centre of the table as the stock. The top card is turned up alongside the stock, as the first card in the discard pile.

Object of the Game

In each round players attempt to be the first to dispose of all their cards (go out), by melding and laying off. Before they are permitted to meld or lay off, a player must make an initial meld (their contract). This gets progressively harder from round to round.

The player that goes out, i.e. gets rid of all their cards, receives no penalty points. The other players receive penalty points equivalent to the value of the cards remaining in their hands (i.e. those that have not been melded or laid off). The winner of the game is the player with the lowest number of penalty points after the eleven rounds.

Melding

There are two kinds of meld:

• A run (sequence) of at least three consecutive cards of the same suit, such as 5 6 7. Aces may count either high or low, and runs such as Q K A 2 3 are permitted (known as ‘going over the top’).

• A set (group or book) of at least three cards of the same rank, such as 10 10 10

Laying Off

Once a player has made an initial meld, he may lay off other cards from his hand by adding them to any set or run melded by any player. Cards added to a set must be of an equal rank. Cards added to a run must be of the correct suit and extend the sequence directly, at either end, i.e. a player may add only the 5 or 9 to the melded sequence 6 78.

Initial Melds (Contracts)

The initial melds in each round are:

For the initial meld, the player must lay down at least the number of sets and/or runs required for that round. The player may make a meld with more than the minimum number of cards required, e.g. make an initial meld of a set of five cards in the Third Round (One 4). However, in the rounds of Two 3’s, Two 4’s, and Two 5’s, the player may not join two runs together. For example in the Second Round, the following cards must be placed in two runs, 3 4 5 and 6 7 8, and not as one single run, 3 4 5 6 7 8.

Once a player has made an initial meld, he may make any number of subsequent melds of three or more cards. He may also lay cards off on sets or runs that were previously melded by any player.

A player may make subsequent melds, or lay cards off, immediately after the initial meld. There is no need to wait until the player’s next turn to do so. This allows players to go out concealed, i.e. get rid of all their cards in one turn.

Melding and laying off are optional, players are not required to do as soon as they are able to.

The Play

The player to dealer's left starts, and play proceeds clockwise around the table with players taking turns.

The player must either draw the top card of the stock or take the top card of the discard pile. He must then throw out (discard) a card from his hand, face up, onto the discard pile.

A player may only make an initial meld, subsequent melds or lay off cards immediately before his turn (go). A player may make as many melds or lay off as many cards as he chooses at one time.

Editor's note. The above rule means that unlike almost every other rummy game, in this game you can only meld before drawing from the stock or discard pile. A card you draw cannot be melded in the same turn: if you draw acquire a card that completes a meld or can be laid off, you must wait until the start of your next turn before you can meld it. JMM

To make an initial or subsequent meld, the player must place the run or set of cards in a fan face up on the table in front of him.

Play continues until one player gets rid of all the cards from their hand.

If the stock runs out of cards, the cards in the discard pile should simply be turned over, without shuffling, to make a new stock, and the top one turned over to start a new discard pile, and play continues as before.

Buying (taking the discard out of turn)

From the fourth round (Two 4‘s) onwards, players are allowed to ‘buy’ the top card in the discard pile (the discard) when it is not their turn. The player must ask for the discard by calling out the word “buy”.

If the player whose turn it is wants the discard he may take it in the ordinary course of his turn (and deny the player who wishes to buy). But if he does not, he must allow others to buy if they wish. They are only allowed to buy the discard before the player takes his turn, i.e. takes a card from the stock. In a fast paced game, players need to be very vigilant for discards that may be of use to them.

The player who buys the discard must also take the top card from the stock, face down. Buying thereby increasing the number of cards in their hand by two.

If more than one player wished to buy a card, it goes to the first player round the table clockwise from the player whose turn it is.

After someone has bought the discard out of turn, it is possible for the same or a different player to buy the next card of the discard pile in exactly the same way. There is no limit as to how many times this can be done.

Players are permitted to buy three times within any round. Any player discovered to have bought more than three times is penalized 100 points.

Play resumes, after a discard has been bought, from its original point. The turn to play does not jump to the person who takes the discard.

Jokers and 2’s

Jokers and 2’ are wild, and may be used in runs or sets (or laid off) to substitute for any missing card, so long as the run or set does not contain more jokers and 2’s than ordinary cards. A 2 of the correct suit played in the correct sequence in a run may be regarded as an ordinary card for this purpose, so 2 3 2 would be permitted as a run of three Spades, where 2 3 2 would not.

Once played, a joker or 2 must stay. It may not be substituted / reclaimed by a player who has the card which the joker or 2 is representing,

Scoring

When someone goes out, play ends and the other players add up the value of the cards they have left in their hands, to determine their penalty points.

At the end of the last round, the player with the lowest total score wins.

Strategy

Beyond the seventh or eighth round it becomes impractical to collect sufficient cards as a set for the initial meld, and players have to build runs. Where there are more than four players this means that at least two players will be collecting the same suit. The ability to change suit or from collecting runs to collecting sets, in response to the cards picked up / used by other players, is important.

The more times a player buys the easier it is for them to make the initial meld, but the greater the penalty points that they might receive if caught by another player going out before they can make their initial meld.

In collecting particular cards during a round, better players will tend to focus as much on the potential for making subsequent melds and laying off, as on forming the initial meld, as the ability to go out quickly is more important than making the initial meld as soon as possible.

In the final round when a player has a sizeable points lead, they may attempt to ‘minimise’, i.e. collect only low point value cards and discarding high value cards (especially wild cards), rather than risk ending up with a large number of high point cards in hand.

You may also be tempted to get rid of a high value card - even a wild card - if you suspect that an opponent has all the cards he needs and is waiting to go out at the start of his next turn. There is however the risk that the opponent has deceived you. If you discard a wild card there is also the risk that an opponent may buy it and together with the extra card obtained from the stock it may enable him to go out even though he could not do so before. JMM

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). From 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 or the highest-value card. By contrast, a wild card is any card that may be used to represent another card or cards; it need not be a Joker. The Joker is unique within the French pack in that it lacks an industry-wide standard appearance.

Origin[edit]

In the game of Euchre, the highest trump card is the Jack of the trump suit, called the right bower (from the German Bauer or Jack); the second-highest trump, the left bower, is the Jack of the suit of the same color as trumps.^[1][2] The concept appears to have originated from Germany where the games Juckerspiel and Bester Bube ('Best Bower') also used Jacks as best, right and left bowers. Around 1860, American Euchre players may have devised a higher trump, the 'Best Bower', out of a blank card.^[3]

Samuel Hart is credited with printing the first illustrated 'Best Bower' card in 1863 with his 'Imperial Bower'.^[4][5] Best Bower-type Jokers continued to be produced well into the 20th century. Cards labelled 'Joker' began appearing around the late 1860s, with some depicting clowns and jesters. It is believed that the term 'Joker' comes from Jucker or Juckerspiel, the original German spelling of Euchre.^[6][7] One British manufacturer, Charles Goodall, was manufacturing packs with Jokers for the American market in 1871.^[8] The first Joker for the domestic British market was sold in 1874.^[9] Italians call Jokers 'Jolly', for many early cards were labelled 'Jolly Joker'.^[10]

The next game to use a Joker was poker around 1875, where it functioned as a wild card.^[11] Packs with two Jokers started to become the norm during the late 1940s for the game of Canasta.^[12][13][14] 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; and in Schleswig-Holstein, Zwickern packs come with six Jokers.^[15]

Appearance[edit]

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.^[16] 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 five-pointed star or a star within a circle. It is also very common for decks to simply use a stylized 'J' or the word 'JOKER' in the corner.

Collecting[edit]

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.^[17]

Tarot and Tarock card games[edit]

The Joker is often compared to '(the) Fool' in the Tarot or Tarock decks. They share many similarities both in appearance and play function. In central Europe, the Fool, or Sküs, is the highest trump; elsewhere as an 'excuse' (L'Excuse) that can be played at any time to avoid following suit, but cannot win.

Cartomancy[edit]

Practitioners of cartomancy often include a Joker in the standard 52-card deck with a meaning similar to the Fool card of Tarot. Sometimes, the two Jokers are used. An approach is to identify the 'black' Joker with a rank of zero with the Fool and the 'red' Joker with 'the Magician', also known as 'the Juggler', which is a card with a rank of one that is somewhat similar in interpretation and is considered the first step in the 'Fool's Journey'.

Use of the Joker in card games[edit]

In a standard deck, there are usually two Jokers. The Joker's use varies greatly. Many card games omit the card entirely; as a result, Jokers are often used as informal replacements for lost or damaged cards in a deck by simply noting the lost card's rank and suit on the Joker. Other games, such as a 25-card variant of Euchre which uses the Joker as the highest trump, make it one of the most important in the game. Often, the Joker is a wild card, and thereby allowed to represent other existing cards. The term 'Joker's wild' originates from this practice.

The Joker can be an extremely beneficial, or an extremely harmful, card. In Euchre it is often used to represent the highest trump. In poker, it is wild. However, in the children's game named Old Maid, a solitary Joker represents the Old Maid, a card that is to be avoided.

Role in multi-player games[edit]

• Euchre, 500: As the highest trump or 'top Bower'.
• Canasta: The Joker, like the deuce, is a wild card. However, the Joker is worth 50 points in melding, as opposed to 20 for the deuce.
• Gin Rummy: a wild card, able to be used as any necessary rank or suit to complete a meld.
• Chase the Joker: An alternative version of Old Maid, where the Joker card is used instead of the Ace.
• Poker: A Joker can be wild, or can be a 'bug', a limited form of wild card which can only be used to complete straights and flushes.
• War: In some variations, beats all other cards.
• Pitch: A point card in some variations. Jokers usually are marked as 'High' and 'Low', one outranking the other.
• Daihinmin: a wild card, or a deuce (which ends the round and clears the discard pile).
• Crazy Eights: a 'skip' card, playable on top of any other card, that forces the next player to lose a turn.
• Spades: uncommon, but can fulfill one of two roles. When playing with three or six players, they are added to make the cards deal evenly (18 or nine cards each, respectively). They are either 'junk' cards playable anytime that cannot win a trick, or they count as the two highest trumps (the two Jokers must be differentiable; the 'big Joker' outranks the 'little Joker'). They also can be used in conjunction with teammates cards to create a pseudo-'trump', i.e. an Ace of Hearts and Joker played together would be counted as an Ace of Spades, inferior only to a natural Ace of Spades.
• Double King Pede: As the lowest-ranked card, but worth 18 points.
• Go Fish: In a game with two players, the Joker pair is often used to bring the number of pairs to 27 and prevent a 13-13 tie.
• Dou dizhu: Jokers are used as the highest value cards; one is little and one is big, usually the colored one being bigger. Both Jokers together is the only unbeatable play.

Role in patience (solitaire) games[edit]

Generally, the Joker is omitted from patience games as in many others of its type. However, there are variations of solitaire games where a Joker does take part, most often as a wild card.

• Forty Thieves: the Joker is placed on the foundations, while the natural card is unavailable. Any applicable cards are placed over the Joker. When the natural card becomes available, it replaces the Joker, which in turn is placed on the top of the foundation pile. When the Joker is placed on an empty foundation, it stays there until an Ace appears.
• Freecell: the Joker functions the same way as mentioned above, but when the natural card it replaces becomes available and the Joker is placed on top, the Joker can be placed on another foundation.
• Golf: where Kings can be built, the Joker, whenever available, is placed on the wastepile as a wild card and any card can be placed over it.
• Klondike: the Joker acts the same way as it is in Forty Thieves. It can also be built while it is still on the tableau. The United States Playing Card Company's version, created by Joli Quentin Kansil, uses two Jokers, with the black joker to be used as a wild black card and the red joker as a wild red card. [1]
• Pyramid: the Joker is discarded together with any available card. In this case, the stock is dealt one card at time and can be reused twice.
• Aces Up: The Jokers are used to clear out a row and are sometimes referred to as 'Joker Bombs'. When a Joker is dealt into a column, the entire column is reshuffled into the stock and that particular Joker is removed from the game. This leaves an empty foundation slot and greatly increases the win rate.

References[edit]

1. ^Parlett, David (1990), The Oxford Guide to Card Games, Oxford University Press, p. 190, ISBN0-19-214165-1
2. ^Beal, George. Playing cards and their story. 1975. New York: Arco Publishing Comoany Inc. p. 58
3. ^Trumps The modern pocket Hoyle. 1868. New York; Dick & Fitzgerald. p. 94.
4. ^Dawson, Tom and Judy. (2014). The Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards. Ch. 5.
5. ^Wintle, Simon. Samuel Hart at The World of Playing Cards. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
6. ^Parlett, David. Euchre at parlettgames.uk. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
7. ^Joker at the International Playing-Card Society. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
8. ^Wintle, Simon (10 April 2008). 'The Evolution, History, and Imagery of Playing Cards'. Collectors Weekly. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
9. ^Goodall, Michael. (2001). 'The Origin of the First English Joker'. The Playing-Card Vol. 29, p.244-246
10. ^Anderson, Matthew. 'The foreign words that seem like English - but aren't'. BBC Culture. BBC Online. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
11. ^Parlett, David (1990), The Oxford Guide to Card Games, Oxford University Press, p. 191, ISBN0-19-214165-1
12. ^Powills, Dorothy. (1989). 'A Voice From the Past'. Chicago Playing Cards Collectors Bulletin. Vol. 36-3, p. 1809.
13. ^McLeod, John. (2005). 'Playing the Game: Canasta Relatives'. The Playing-Card, Vol. 34-2, p.141.
14. ^Wintle, Simon. Canasta at The World of Playing Cards. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
15. ^McLeod, John. Zwickern at pagat.com. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
16. ^'playing card joker collection'. dotpattern. 2003-06-07. Retrieved 2012-03-31.
17. ^'Guinness World Records'. February 14, 2018. Retrieved February 14, 2018.

External links[edit]

• Media related to Jokers (playing card) at Wikimedia Commons

Joker's Wild Card Game