10 Oldest Card Games
By Harry Ted Sprinks
Card games are one of the oldest forms of tabletop games, with standardized decks of playing cards being the primary format in which they are played. These cards have gone through many changes and iterations over the years, and are different in all parts of the world. Countless traditional card games exist or have existed, but these examples provide a varied history of card games.
Information and evidence of older card games exist in varying quantities, so while some of these games almost certainly came from a specific period, some have a less accurately recorded history. Regardless, it's safe to assume that all the games included are fairly old, though some of them are still played today.
Poker
1829-1836
A classic American pastime, Poker is almost synonymous with playing cards, though it hasn't been around nearly as long as other card games and has even shown up in some video games. This is a testament to the game's popularity and cultural impact.
Although Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling (1843, Jonathan H. Green) and Thirty Years Passed Among the Players in England and America (1844, Joe Cowell) imply that Poker was widely played by 1829, the first evidence of the game stems back to the writings of J. Hildreth and their Dragoon Campaigns To The Rocky Mountains in 1836.
Patience
1798
The term "Patience" regarding card games can often refer to solo (solitaire) games as a whole, but the earliest mention of Patience as a game in of itself occurs in Das neue Spielalmanach für (1798) where it is described as a game for two players in which players take turns playing Patience, with both the players and potential spectators gambling on the outcome of the game.
The interesting thing about this reference is that it implies that Patience, a game typically assumed to be a solitaire experience, was originally played with two players. It could therefore be assumed that Patience evolved into a solitaire game through players practicing the game by themselves, only to find it an enjoyable pastime.
Whist
1674
Although Whist was first described by Charles Cotton in his account of various game rules, The Compleat Gamester, in 1674, the game's widespread popularity wasn't fully developed until the early-to-mid eighteenth century, when famed English writer and card player, Edmond Hoyle, began to tutor the game before publishing his work on it, A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist, in 1742.
Whist is one of the most popular classic trick-taking card games, and remained fairly popular throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, though its popularity has died out since. However, Whist has seen many off-shoots since its original conception, including the famous Boston (Whist) and Knock-Out Whist.
Ombre
1665
This English variation of L'Hombre, which came from the Spanish card game, Hombre, was one of the most popular card games in the West until Whist came about and eclipsed it, which itself was later overshadowed by the still-popular partnership game of Bridge.
Although Ombre did come after other, older games, it's still one of the oldest card games to have been played and popularized, with its first concrete appearance in The Royal Game Of Ombre Written At The Request Of Divers Honourable Persons in 1665.
Noddy
1589
The earliest evidence of Noddy, which is predated by Costly Colours and is a precursor to the massively popular Cribbage, is an appearance in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1589. The game gets its name from its term for the traditional "Jack" card, which was often known as a "Knave" in other games, and known as a "Noddy" (a popular English term for a fool at the time) in this game.
The game itself is extremely similar to Cribbage in both its scoring (players can use cards to make fifteens and count cards more than once in different combinations) and the peg-and-hole board to keep track of the game.
Thirty-One
1440
This precursor to the gambling game Vingt-Un, the originator of the essentially identical game Twenty-One (otherwise known as Blackjack), is extremely similar to that of Twenty-One, with its core difference being fairly obvious: the reduced target count.
Thirty-One isn't just one of the oldest card games, it's also one of the oldest gambling card games, dating back to a 1440 sermon of an Italian monk and "mentioned by name in a 1464 French translation." The card game remained popular, especially in France, through to the eighteenth century, and began to die out sometime during the nineteenth century as it was eclipsed by its successor, Twenty-One.
Karnoffel
1426
As far as European card games go, Karnoffel is the oldest of them all, with evidence of its existence dating back to the passing of a law in the German state of Bavaria in 1426 that allowed the councilors to play the game at an annually held festival. The game was played with a standard deck of German-suited cards that included the suits of acorns, leaves, hearts, and bells.
Unfortunately, the original rules for Karnoffel are long gone, and many have abandoned hope of recovering them, though some have attempted to reconstruct them based on the limited information available. Karnoffel is arguably responsible for many of the tropes that exist in more modern European card games, especially in trick-taking games, most notably being responsible for the general rule that the Ace beats out the King.
The Chinese "Leaf" Game
(Yezi Ge)
618-907
It is widely considered that playing cards originated in China in the form of a game called yezi ge, which translates to "the game of Leaves", between 618 and 907 during the Tang Dynasty. This assumption, however, relies on the basis that the term "leaves" refers to paper cards. Some believe that this card game was actually a paper version of dominoes.
Assuming that "the game of Leaves" refers to the playing of cards (and not the "leaves" of a rule book detailing a dice game, as written by historian Ouyang Xiu), yezi ge is one of, if not the oldest playing card game to have existed.
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