It is also believed that the term 'Joker' comes from Juckerspiel, which is also known as Jucker, the original German spelling of Euchre. 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. Cards labelled 'Joker' began appearing around the late 1860s, with some depicting clowns and jesters such as Elizabethan jester Richard Tarlton. Best Bower-type Jokers continued to be produced well into the 20th century. It must have been in use even earlier, however, since the term 'Best Bower' appears in a satirical 1861 piece about the American Civil War, and in fact Samuel Hart is credited with printing the first illustrated 'Best Bower' card in 1863 with his 'Imperial Bower'. This gave rise to a variant game called 'Euchre with the Joker' in which the blank card ranked above all the rest.

According to card game historian, David Parlett, the Joker was added to a 32‑card pack in the 1850s specifically for the game of Euchre and is first mentioned in a set of rules in 1868 where it turns out to be a blank specimen card not intended for actual play. In the earliest rules of 1844, 32 standard cards are used and the Right Bower, the trump Jack, was the 'commanding card' with the Left Bower, the Jack of the same colour, as the second-highest card. However, Euchre originally did not use jokers. The game of Euchre is credited with the introduction of the Joker into card games. Origin Imperial Bower, the earliest Joker, by Samuel Hart, c. Zwicker which has six Jokers with this function).īy contrast, a wild card is any card that may be used to represent another card or cards – it need not be a Joker. 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. The Joker originated in the United States during the Civil War, and was created as a trump card for the game of Euchre. From the second half of the 20th century, they have also been found in Spanish- and Italian-suited decks, excluding stripped decks. 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).

Poker jokers wild