Suits

The four French playing cards suits that are used primarily in the English-speaking world:

1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Clubs (♣)

Diamonds (♦)

Spades (♠)

Hearts (♥)

Killers Achievers Explorers Socializers

The Bartle Taxonomy of player types uses the four suits as symbols of different (video) gamer personalities:

  • Clubs (Killers) — enjoy competition and take pleasure in causing physical destruction in the virtual environment.
  • Diamonds (Achievers) — enjoy gaining points, levels, or any physical measure of their in-game achievement.
  • Spades (Explorers) — enjoy digging around, discovering new areas, or learning about easter eggs or glitches in the game.
  • Hearts (Socializers) — enjoy playing games for the social aspect or by interacting with other players.

Some decks, while using the French suits, give each suit a different color to make the suits more distinct from each other. In bridge, such decks are known as no-revoke decks, and the most common colors are black spades, red hearts, blue diamonds and green clubs, although in the past the diamond suit usually appeared in a golden yellow-orange. A pack occasionally used in Germany uses green spades (comparable to leaves), red hearts, yellow diamonds (comparable to bells) and black clubs (comparable to acorns). This is a compromise deck devised to allow players from East Germany (who used German suits) and West Germany (who adopted the French suits) to be comfortable with the same deck when playing tournament Skat after the German reunification.