The Anglo-American deck (called the French deck in most other languages) is the most common deck of cards used in English-speaking countries.
Card Values[]
The deck contains 52 cards in 4 suits: spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. Each suit contains cards number 2 through 10, an Ace, and three face cards: a Jack, a Queen, and a King, 13 cards in all. Sometimes 1, 2, or 4 jokers are used in the deck, but these are often done away with.
Design[]
The cards of an Anglo-American deck usually have the rank on opposite corners of the card (occasionally all four corners) for readability when overlapped and a central design. For numbered cards, the design is typically a number of symbols of its suit called pips, the number of pips being equal to the value of the card. The Ace of a suit contains a single large pip, and the Ace of spades usually displays a fanciful design and the manufacturer's logo. The face cards each contain reversible drawings of royalty. Though many face card design elements are rarely used in game play, they have become custom for printing; for example, the Jack of spades, the Jack of hearts, and the King of diamonds are drawn in profile, while the other face cards are drawn from the front. The designs on the jokers may vary wildly from deck to deck, but there is usually one joker noticeably more colorful than the other or others.