(the deck of 52 “French playing cards” is the most common deck of ‘playing cards’ used today)
(they are commonly utilized in ‘gambling’ (e.g. casinos, pubs etc)
(it includes thirteen ranks of each of the four French ‘suits’: clubs (♣), diamonds (♦), hearts (♥) and spades (♠), with reversible “court” or ‘face cards’)
(some modern designs, however, have done away with reversible ‘face cards’)
(each suit includes an ‘ace’, depicting a single symbol of its suit; a ‘king’, ‘queen’, and ‘jack’, each depicted with a symbol of its suit; and ranks 2 through 10, with each card depicting that many symbols (pips) of its suit)
(anywhere from 1 to 4 (most often 2) ‘jokers’, often distinguishable with one being more colorful than the other, are added to commercial decks, as some games require this extended deck)
(modern playing cards carry ‘index labels’ on opposite corners (rarely, all four corners) to facilitate identifying the cards when they overlap and so that they appear identical for players on opposite sides)
(the most popular stylistic pattern of the ‘French Deck’ is sometimes referred to as “English” or “Anglo-American playing cards”)
(it has been shown that because of the large number of possibilities from shuffling a 52 card deck, it is probable that no two fair card shuffles have ever yielded exactly the same order of cards)