Are Card Suits Ranked?

[Gnome Alone]

, I thought I read somewhere that the suits of a standard deck of cards are ranked. The order, I think, was Clubs<Diamonds <Hearts<Spades. I kinda think it's maybe not true, because I can't find anything on the subject when en-Googling for it and that makes me think that if it were true it'd probably be easier to find something saying that. On the other hand, it doesn't seem like there'd be that many real applications for it, except maybe in just playing High Card; e.g. Jack of Hearts beats Jack of Diamonds.

I will say, if it is true, it'd be kinda cool since the order suggests to me that money (Diamonds) is more powerful than violence (Clubs), but love (Hearts) is more powerful than money, yet death (Spades) is more powerful than love. The explanation I may have read might have phrased it that way. Though it may have been, y'know, BS fan fiction, essentially.

Does anyone know for sure?

[Timeras]

In Skat the order from highest to lowest is Clubs, Spades, Hearts, Diamonds. In Poker I think it's Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs.

[Keld Denar]

Its really gonna vary by game. In Poker, a Royal Flush in Hearts is worth exactly the same as a Royal Flush in Clubs, for example. In Hearts, Hearts and the Queen of Spades are worth points, but aren't "higher" in terms of taking tricks. Whatever is lead is the "trump" suit. In Euchre and Pinochle, the person who names trump sets what cards have the highest power.

In general, however, Hearts is generally given the most representation, mostly because of Alice in Wonderland and associated trickle down from that. IMO.

[Zyzzyva]

The order you gave is correct for Bridge bidding; but as has been mentioned, it varies by game.

[Aedilred]

The ranking will vary by game, yes. The Ace of Spades is traditionally the highest-ranked card in the deck, and is also the one where the maker's logo is (in Britain, at least) printed, by statute law since the 17th century I think.

If I remember correctly, in the "standard" (French) deck, the suits each represent a different class of people: clubs the commoners, diamonds the wealthy, hearts the clergy, and spades the warriors (the aristocracy, essentially). The suits are all adapted from earlier versions and don't carry the obvious symbolism of their modern incarnation. Spades, for instance, were originally swords, hearts were chalices, clubs were something connected with agriculture, and so on.

The knave, queen and king in each suit also represents a historic or mythological figure, with clues in their posture and attire to their identity (albeit fairly abstruse ones) and with a loose thematic connection to their suit. Again, if I remember rightly, the king of spades is Alexander the Great, hearts Charlemagne, diamonds Julius Caesar, and clubs King David. Sir Lancelot features as one of the knaves (clubs?)

[Madcrafter]

Varies by game, but I think most card playing people, if asked about the ranking, would be familiar with the bridge version even if they have never played bridge in their lives.

[sktarq]

Clubs low to spades high is common enough that is could be used as a baseline or default-that's why the 2 of clubs is the starting card for hearts for example (lowest card in the deck) and why they picked the ace of spades for the manufacturers logo (highest).

[stcfg]

Here is the Wikipedia article on the ranking of suits.

Bridge order is the de facto standard but a lot of other games do it another way.

[Gnome Alone]

Wow, everyone is so helpful and knew a bunch of stuff. Thank you. I admit I was thinking mainly of poker, that being what I'm familiar with (culturally, I mean; I couldn't play poker to save my life [bad with probabilities and I can barely read people's faces]) but it's interesting that the bridge ranking is exactly the way I thought in the first place. And yeah, I know the suits didn't evolved with such obvious symbolism, but it's still a neat little mnemonicky thing to remember it by.

I like the German suits: Hearts, Bells, Acorns and Leaves. Gotta say, this subject kinda makes me wanna do ky own illustration design of a deck of cards.

[TheThan]

That depends on the game

In bridge and (usually) poker it goes Spades> Hearts> diamonds> clubs.
This is why you always see the winning hand in poker movies be a spade royal flush, because it’s literally unbeatable.
However that’s not the only way to do it. There are a bunch of other games that change this up. But they’re not nearly as popular or wide spread.

Really Wikipedia could have answered this question, but meh.

[Gnome Alone]

Hey, I looked. I couldn't find anything, so I asked; it worked. Sheesh.

[TheThan]

Hey, I looked. I couldn't find anything, so I asked; it worked. Sheesh.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suit_%28cards%29

there ya go!

[Jimorian]

That depends on the game

In bridge and (usually) poker it goes Spades> Hearts> diamonds> clubs.
This is why you always see the winning hand in poker movies be a spade royal flush, because it’s literally unbeatable.
However that’s not the only way to do it. There are a bunch of other games that change this up. But they’re not nearly as popular or wide spread.

Really Wikipedia could have answered this question, but meh.

As somebody upstream mentioned, suits mean nothing in poker.

[Socratov]

heh, funny, if in a game suit matters I usually arrange them clubs, diamonds, spades, hearts. (mainly for visibility). I didn't know spades came after hearts

[Eldan]

I always learned it as black beats red, hearts beat diamonds and spades beat... what was the name of the fourth one in English? I know it's neither crosses nor staves.

[Nai_Calus]

The only order that matters in cards is what order you put your Solitaire cards up top in because it bothers you when they're not in the 'right' order. (Which is the unrelated-to-anything-else order of hearts - clubs - diamonds - spades for me.)

[Gnome Alone]

I always learned it as black beats red, hearts beat diamonds and spades beat... what was the name of the fourth one in English? I know it's neither crosses nor staves.

Clubs, because we all know how easy it is to swing your giant three-pronged club around...

[obryn]

Yeah, Bridge ranking is the de-facto standard when you really need one.

Savage Worlds, fwiw, uses bridge ranking for initiative.

[RandomNPC]

Poker doesn't rank?

I was under the impression every aspect of poker was ranked, what if i get a 3-7 flush with clubs and someone else does it with spades?

[BannedInSchool]

Poker doesn't rank?

I was under the impression every aspect of poker was ranked, what if i get a 3-7 flush with clubs and someone else does it with spades?

A tie and you split the pot.

[Bulldog Psion]

Clubs, because we all know how easy it is to swing your giant three-pronged club around...

Most clubs and maces have an expanded striking head; the card emblem could be easily interpreted as a close-up of the head, in a somewhat stylized form. Just saying.

My personal interpretation of the suit symbolism was always:

Hearts - love.
Diamonds - riches.
Clubs - power, due to the resemblance to the end of a scepter in some medieval illustrations.
Spades - armed might, since "spades" = "swords."

In short, all the good stuff.

EDIT: and, as noted, ranking depends on the game.

[Aedilred]

Clubs are not supposed to depict actual clubs: that the word has come to be the same is, I think, the result of a linguistic confusion. The suit as it came from France was originally "trefles", or "clovers", hence the distinctive clover pattern and clubs' being green in a four-colour deck. That is still the name in French.

In Italian and Spanish decks however the suit is clubs, represented with what is more obviously a club. Tarot is similar. Latin decks had been more common in England historically but were supplanted by French ones some time in the late Middle Ages. I suspect that the similarity in "clover" and "club" led people to use the latter word as standard in English, even though we retained the French symbols and thus the clover.

Note that we also use the Italian name for spades, although again the symbol was taken from French (pikes): in that case it might have helped that the symbol for spades more obviously resembled a spade. Diamonds seems to have developed independently, presumably from the shape, while hearts still uses the original term as in French.

[sktarq]

Well in some older decks the "proto-clubs" were batons. Still rather common in English language tarot minor arcana.

[Lissou]

Interesting that so many people say suits don't matter in poker. I've always played it with rules that if for in for instance you have a royal flush in Hearts and someone else has a royal flush in Spades, the one with Spades wins. (Not very likely to happen but still). Mind you, suits were the latest tie breaker, after all the other ways to determine who won, but it was always part of the rules when I played. It might depend on the version of poker you're playing.

Although, did someone mention making your own suits?

[TheThan]

As somebody upstream mentioned, suits mean nothing in poker.

Sorry to say but it you're wrong

It's not a major part of the game. but it's there.

[Citizen Nij]

When high-carding for the button or a free seat or rounding up/down tournament chip stacks, suits break a tie between two cards of the same rank.

When splitting the pot, the suit of the highest card used in the hand may be used to determine the winner of a leftover indivisible amount.

When playing an actual hand, the suits are all equivalent. Any players who have the same hand, except for using different suited cards, will split the pot.

This depends on the actual system used, however SHDC seems to be the most common.

Spoiler: Rudeness

Show

These are often remembered by the mnemonic "Suck Hard, Don't Choke".

ex.
Players A, B, C, D are four-handed when the table must close. There are two seats available on other tables, which they take cards for. Dealt are the KS, TD, TC, 7H.
The King-card player has first choice. The other seat is given to the Ten-Diamonds player. The Ten-Clubs-player is first on the waiting list.

ex.
Player F has the royal flush in hearts, Player G has the royal flush in diamonds. There is $505 in the pot, $5 units.
The pot will be split between both Players. Since there is an odd number of units, Player F will receive $255, because they have the better high-card-suit, and Player G will receive $250.

ex.
Player J has the Ace-Spades in hole, Player K has the Ace-Diamonds in hole. The board is dealt four-of-a-kind with the Ace-Clubs kicker.
All players still active in the hand will receive an equal share of the pot, because all players have the same hand.
Player J does not win the whole pot on suit.

[Capt Spanner]

This depends on the actual system used, however SHDC seems to be the most common.

I always remembered these by the fact that they're in alphabetical order: [Least] CDHS [Most].