Quiz-question-suggestions about playing-cards and card-games
On deck with your playing cards
- How many suites are in a standard deck of playing cards? [4]
- What are the names of the suites? [hearts, diamonds, spades, clubs]
- What colour are they? [Red = hearts and diamonds. Black = spades and clubs]
- And how many cards does it have? [52 + 2 jokers]
- What are the picture cards called [Jack, Queen, King, Ace, and Joker]
- Who do the kings represent? [King of Hearts = Charlemagne; King of Diamonds = Julius Caesar; King of Clubs = Alexander the Great, King of Spades = King David from the bible]
- Which King doesn't have a moustache? [King of Hearts ]
- Which King has an axe instead of a sword? [ King of Diamonds]
- What country were cardboard playing cards invented in? [China]
- What are the dimensions (height and width) of a card from a standard deck? [2.5 x 3.5 in / 6.35 x 9 cm]
- What are you doing when you mix the cards in a deck up, so they aren't in any predictable order? [shuffling the deck]
- How many ways can the cards in a deck be put into order? [ 52! ie 52 factorial = or the number 8 with 67 zeroes after it, ]
- In the Wink Martindale song "Deck of Cards", what are the three things which a deck of cards is compared to? [Prayer book, calendar, and almanac]
- What is John Montague famous for? [He was the Earl of Sandwich, and he was so reluctant to leave a card game to eat that he had a servant bring him a piece of meat between two slices of bread so he could eat with one hand and continue the card-game with the other.]
- Who achieved the Guinness World Record for the "world's tallest card tower" in 1992? [Bryan Berg]
- What do you have in your hand if you have a full house? [Three matching cards of one type (eg three fives or three kings) and two matching cards of another]
Famous card games
Match the game with the phrase that best describes it(You need a matched pairs answer sheet for this - choose the ten games that your quiz participants are most likely to know about. The list below shows the correct answers - mix them up for the options you choose to include.)
- Bridge - is played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table
- Poker - the names is derived derived from a German verb that means to brag or bluff.
- 500 - the aim is to be the first person to score 500 points
- Strip Jack Naked - is also called Beggar my Neighbour
- Solitare - a game you can play by yourself
- Rummy - based on matching cards of the same rank or sequence and same suit.
- Black-jack - is also called twenty-oneCanasta - uses two complete decks of 52 playing cards plus the four Jokers.
- Cribbage - has two distinct scoring stages (the play and the show)
- Euchre - the name is derived from the German word for Joker
- Munchkin - uses a dedicated deck
- Snap - often played with children, needs great co-ordination and observation
