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Trump (card games)
Playing card with an elevated rank / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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A trump is a playing card which is elevated above its usual rank in trick-taking games. Typically an entire suit is nominated as a trump suit; these cards then outrank all cards of plain (non-trump) suits. In other contexts the terms trump card or to trump refers to any sort of action, authority or policy which automatically prevails over all others.
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The introduction of trumps is one of only two major innovations to trick-taking games since they were invented; the other being the idea of bidding.[1] Trump cards, initially called trionfi, first appeared with the advent of Tarot cards in which there is a separate, permanent trump suit comprising a number of picture cards.[2] The first known example of such cards was ordered by the Duke of Milan around 1420 and included 16 trumps with images of Greek and Roman gods.[3]
Around the same time that Tarot cards were invented with the purpose of adding a trump suit to the existing four suits, a similar concept arose in the game of Karnöffel. However, in this south German game played with an ordinary pack, some cards of a given suit had full trump powers, others were partial trumps and the 7s had a special role. These features have been retained in games of the Karnöffel family down to the present, but are never seen in Tarot games.[4] Suits with these variable powers are thus called chosen suits or selected suits to distinguish them from trump suits.[5]