Ace

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Ace cards of all four French suits
An ace is a playing card. %n the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond,
spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the case of
the Ace of &pades. This embellishment on the Ace of &pades started 'hen (ing !ames )% of &cotland
and % of *ngland re+uired an insignia of the printing house to be printed on the Ace of &pades. This
insignia 'as necessary for identifying the printing house and stamping it as having paid the ne' ta,.
Although this re+uirement 'as abolished in -./#, the tradition has been kept by many card makers.0-1
The 'ord 2ace2 comes from the 3ld French 'ord 4as4 (from 5atin 4as4) meaning 4a unit4, from the name of a
small 6oman coin. %t originally meant the side of dice 'ith only one mark, before it 'as a term for a
playing card. &ince this 'as the lo'est roll of the die, it traditionally meant 4bad luck4 in 7iddle *nglish, but
as the ace is often the highest playing card, its meaning has since changed to mean 4high8+uality,
e,cellence4. This connotation has seen the 'ord applied to an unreachable tennis serve, a successful
fighter pilot and more generally as a person proficient in their field, especially a sporting field.
9istorically, the ace had the lo'est value and this still holds in many popular *uropean games (in fact
most *uropean decks, including the French Tarot :ouveau, do not use the 2A2 inde,, instead keeping the
numeral 2-2). 9o'ever, in most games popular in the *nglish8speaking 'orld, aces have the highest
value of all cards in a suit. 7any games, such as poker and black;ack, allo' the player to choose 'hether
the ace is used as a high or lo' card. This duality allo's players in some other games to use it as both at
once< some variants of 6ummy allo' players to form groups, or 2melds2, of rank (8A8" or similar. This is
kno'n collo+uially as 2going around the corner2.

A pair of aces is the best hand to be dealt in Te,as 9old4em Poker
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Ace8high origin
The folk tradition of 2ace high2 e,isted in some games as of the late -=th century, for e,ample Three8card
brag, a precursor to modern forms of Poker. %t 'as not only the French deck 'hich e,perienced this
promotion, but some games involving the >erman deck also evolved into using the ?aus (t'o) as the
highest card.0"1 The use of the ace as the highest card in the French deck gained more 'idespread
acceptance as a result of the French 6evolution. *,amples of the ace being a high card include the game
9earts as 'ell as the game sho' @ard &harks.
The promotion of the ace symbolised the removal of the nobility (especially (ing 5ouis A)%) and the
promotion of the common man. %n addition to this move, the traditional court card imagery of the nobility
had the cro'ns removed so as to give human personifications to chosen democratic ideals (5ibertB,
*galitB and FraternitB). pon the rise of :apoleon to *mperor, royalty became more popular once more
and the royal court 'as re8established on the imagery of the cards. :apoloen commissioned an artist to
depict a more historically8correct court, but the move proved unpopular and the medieval court figures
'ere +uickly reinstated.0C1
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*,ample cardsAce of &pades Ace of @lubs Ace of 9earts Ace of ?iamonds
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6eferences
D (nuckle, White, A Erief 9istory of Playing @ards
D !ohn 7c5eod. 2>ames played 'ith >erman suited cards2. pagat.comF. 6etrieved "#-#8--8"=.
D %nternational Playing8@ard &ociety. 2Playing8card 9istoryG French revolutionary cards2. 6etrieved "#-#8
--8"=.0hide1
v H d H e H
Playing cards (common French style)
&tandard
="8card deck &uit I 6ank Ace (ing Jueen !ack -# . K $
/ = L C "
&pades M Ace (ing Jueen !ack -# . K $ / = L
C "
9earts N Ace (ing Jueen !ack -# . K $ / = L
C "
?iamonds O Ace (ing Jueen !ack -# . K $ / = L
C "
@lubs P Ace (ing Jueen !ack -# . K $ / = L
C "
&tandard
=/8card deck (night
3thers !oker H Face card H @ard nicknames