A little bar stool trivia on cards?
November 21, 2008
Dear Mark: Is there any way of producing luck
when you gamble? Wendy P.
Producing luck? Sure! You will always have more
luck in the long run at games where the casino
has a small house edge versus games where the
casino has a large house edge. You’ve read it
here before, and I’ll state it again; The
smarter you play, the luckier you’ll be.
Indeed, Wendy, though it’s possible to have good
fortune making bad bets on bad games, don’t bet
on such outlandish lucky streaks happening with
any frequency.
Dear Mark: It seems every time I play one coin
instead of three coins in a slot machine, I seem
to hit more payouts. Are the machines set to pay
less when you play more coins? John S.
You didn’t mention where you play, but in every
gaming jurisdiction that I’m familiar with,
which is pretty much the whole US market, it is
illegal for a slot machine to determine which
symbols will land on which payline based on the
number of coins played.
You will, though, have a higher long-term
payback when you play the maximum coin amount.
But that's just because some combinations pay
more when you play maximum coin. What doesn’t
change are the chances of landing on paying
combinations, whether you played, one, two, or
the maximum number of coins.
Dear Mark: In last week’s column you stated that
the suit of spades reflects nobility in the
structure of medieval society. As a bit of a
card trivia buff, I was always under the
impression that spades represented the Middle
East of biblical times. Is there a different
interpretation that I am unfamiliar with? Tomas
H.
The introduction, manner, and interpretations of
what both the suits and the Kings, Queens and
Jacks (Knaves) on them represent are forever a
matter of dispute. Your version represents
civilizations that have influenced our culture.
Hearts the Holy Roman Empire, diamonds the Roman
Empire, clubs Greece, and as you state
correctly, spades the Middle East of biblical
times.
Another depiction, comes from France, the
culture having had the greatest influence on the
creation of the modern deck of cards. They
combined the knight and page, reduced the size
of the deck to 52 cards, and simplified the suit
symbols in 1480 to red for diamonds and hearts,
black spades and trefoils (clover leaves). The
four suits reflecting the structure of the
medieval society: hearts—priesthood;
spades—nobility; clubs—peasantry; diamonds—the
wealthy merchant class.
There are many theories about whom the court
cards represent, one of the most common being
that the Kings in a deck of cards represent
famous rulers; the king of spades is King David,
the king of clubs is Alexander the Great, the
king of hearts is Charlemagne, and the king of
diamonds is Julius Caesar.
As for the king’s better half, the queen of
spades, the only armed queen in the deck,
represents Athena, who used the epithet
"Pallas,” the Greek goddess of war. The queen of
diamonds is Rachel, the second wife of Jacob.
The queen of clubs is Argine, an anagram of
Regina, signifying queen. The queen of hearts is
Judith of Bavaria, daughter-in-law of
Charlemagne.
The jack of spades represents Ogier the Dane, a
knight of Charlemagne, clubs, Judas Maccabeus,
one of the greatest warriors in Jewish history,
hearts, La Hire, a French military commander who
fought alongside Joan of Arc, and diamonds, the
Trojan prince, Hector.
A propos Biblical times, or at least the Bible,
did you know that after Johann Gutenberg
finished printing the 1,284-page Gutenberg Bible
run, having invented the printing press in 1455,
the next impressions he made were of playing
cards?
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: "Poker
is a godless game filled with random pain."
--Andy Bloch, Bigger Deal
