| Native Name: | French: Trèfle |
| Deck: | French-suited playing cards |
Clubs (
) (French: Trèfle) is one of the four playing card suits in the standard French-suited playing cards. The symbol was derived from that of the suit of Acorns in a German deck when French suits were invented in around 1480.[1]In Skat and Doppelkopf, Clubs are the highest-ranked suit (whereas Diamonds and Bells are the trump suit in Doppelkopf). In Bridge, Clubs are the lowest suit.
Its original French name is French: Trèfle which means "clover" and the card symbol depicts a three-leafed clover leaf. The Italian name is Italian: Fiori ("flower"). However, the English name "Clubs" is a translation of basto, the Spanish name for the suit of batons suggesting that Spanish-suited cards were used in England before French suits were invented.[2]
In Germany, this suit is known as German: Kreuz ("cross"), especially in the International Skat Regulations. In Austria, by contrast, it is almost exclusively called German: Treff a reference to the French name, especially in the game of Bridge, where French names generally predominate, for example French: Cœur is used instead of German: Herz.
The symbol for the suit of Clubs depicts a very stylised three-leaf clover with its stalk oriented downwards.
Generally, the suit of Clubs is black in colour so they can be used in some games as a pair with Spades (suit), like Klondike (solitaire). However, the suit may also be green, for example as sometimes used in Bridge (where it is one of the two minor suits, along with Diamonds).
The gallery below shows a suit of Clubs from a French-suited playing cards of 52 cards. Not shown is the Knight of Clubs used in tarot card games:
Four-colour packs are sometimes used in tournaments or online.[3] In four-colour packs, clubs may be:
in German Skat packs,[5]The symbol ♣ is already in the CP437 and thus also part of Windows WGL4. In Unicode a black ♣ and a white ♧ Club symbol are defined:
| Symbol | Unicode | Entity in HTML | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ♣ | U+2663 BLACK CLUB SUIT | ♣ or ♣ | |
| ♧ | U+2667 WHITE CLUB SUIT | ♧ |