So Exactly How Big is a Deck Without Those Jokers?
As an avid card game enthusiast, this is a question I get all the time from curious newcomers. And the answer is pretty straightforward – a standard deck contains 52 cards. Let me elaborate…
Without the jokers, a normal deck of cards measures 2.5 by 3.5 inches and includes 52 cards total. There are 4 suits with 13 cards per suit, covering the numbers 2-10 plus the face cards.
But before we talk specifics, first we need to understand where those jokers came from in the first place!
A Brief History of Jokers
Jokers came about in the 1860s as special trump cards for the game Euchre, which was very popular at the time. Since then, they‘ve stuck around as legacy components of most decks. However, these days they rarely get used in most card games.
Outside of a few informal variations of Rummy, Poker, or special kid‘s games, jokers mostly just take up space! Game manufacturers mostly keep producing them out of tradition, rather than necessity.
When included, usual convention is to have two jokers per deck. This brings the total count up to 54 cards.
Deck Specifications
Let‘s dig into some key specs for a standard 52-card poker deck without those extra jokers:
| Dimension | Specification |
|---|---|
| Width | 2.5 inches |
| Height | 3.5 inches |
| # of Cards | 52 |
| # of Suits | 4 |
| Cards per Suit | 13 |
These dimensions can vary slightly between manufacturers. For example:
- Bicycle – 2.5 x 3.5 inches
- Copag – 2.32 x 3.46 inches
- Fournier – 2.36 x 3.46 inches
However, the standard French-suited 52-card format is fairly consistent whether you‘re playing with Bicycle, Copag, Fournier, or other well-known brands.
Specialty decks do exist too though! There are bridge-sized cards that measure just 2.25 x 3.5 inches for example. Or giant playing cards nearly double the dimensions designed for magic tricks or displays. But for most casual card games, poker size is standard.
Do We Really Need Jokers?
If jokers are so rarely used in most contemporary games, why do manufacturers persist with tossing a couple into each deck?
Honestly, because of tradition more than anything else. We expect to open a new deck and see two jokers inside alongside the 52 standard cards. It has become an intrinsic part of what a deck is culturally, even if they mostly just take up space.
However, based on the continued evolution we‘ve seen around card games and gambling, I speculate that we might see decks sold without jokers eventually. Just the 52 essential cards. This would reduce production costs marginally for manufacturers. It also caters better to the majority of games where those jokers go unused anyway!
In the short term, two jokers per deck is still firmly the standard. But down the line, I predict we‘ll see more variety available in terms of 45-card bridge decks or 52-card standard decks excluded for common games where they just aren‘t needed.
Simple answer – because tradition! But that may change soon.
With most popular card games today, from your family poker night to pro Texas Hold‘em tournaments, jokers are almost always excluded from play. The standard 52-card French deck works perfectly.
In the rare games that do involve jokers, they tend to act as informal wild cards. But game designers have moved away from relying on them as necessary components.
Instead, games have shifted towards using more strategic wild cards or variances based on the main 52 cards. This frees up room for more sophisticated design without needing to fall back on an extraneous extra.
Do Gamblers and Card Sharks Use Jokers?
In short – not typically!
Casinos use specialized decks optimized either for high durability or cheating prevention. For example, the iconic red and green Copag cards developed back in the 1920s. Or casino-grade Bee or Gemaco cards today specially designed to withstand thousands of shuffles and games.
These decks derive from the standard 52 cards. But you likely won‘t find any jokers. According to gambling historian David Galt, jokers are "too unpredictable and random to be used for most casino games."
For poker variations like Texas Hold‘em widespread in casinos today, those extra cards would only throw off gameplay and probabilities anyway!
What About Tarot Cards and Cartomancy?
Interestingly, while jokers are not prevalent in most major modern card games, some occult or cartomancy decks do integrate them. Spanish suited playing card decks used for divination readings often add two comodines (‘jesters‘) with mystical meanings.
Tarot decks used for fortune telling utilize 22 distinct Major Arcana cards plus the Fool, who serves as a wild card of sorts. So perhaps there are still spiritual ties to those whimsical jokers after all!
While jokers continue the 60+ year tradition of augmenting most packaged card decks today, they are rarely used in actual gameplay. Outside of a handful of niche games, they‘ve become more of a cultural legacy than a functional necessity.
When asking "how big is a deck" for standard play, the answer lies simply at 52 cards across the 4 iconic suits we recognize. Guides and gaming veterans like myself might speculate whether we‘ll see less extraneous jokers packaged in coming years.
But one fact remains true year after year – you only need those iconic 52 cards to play almost any classic card game across kitchen tables or poker parlors worldwide!
