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"I must complain," said Jonathan Swift, "the cards are ill shuffled till I get a good hand." That has been the sentiment of many card players over the centuries as they tried to pit their skill or luck against an opponent. Card games may be an entertainment for children, a pastime for adults, an addiction to gamblers, or a means of fortune-telling.

Whatever their use, they all depend on skill, luck, or a combination of the two. There are basically three types of card games: card-capturing, card-combination, and a blend of the two.

The standard modern playing card is a small piece of pasteboard in a rectangular shape, measuring about 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches (6 by 9 centimeters). Each card has markings on it to indicate one of four suits: spades, hearts, diamonds, or clubs. Most of the cards also have numbers from two through ten that correspond to the number of spades, hearts, diamonds, or clubs pictured on the card. What would be the number one card is called an ace and is marked with an "A." Three face cards, or picture cards--the jack (usually a soldier or servant), queen, and king--are marked with a "J," "Q," or "K" respectively. There is also a joker (usually with a picture of a medieval court jester), which is normally not used for play.

A set of 52 cards makes up the standard deck. (One notable exception is the deck for the game of pinochle. It contains 48 cards: two cards in each suit in the range from the ace--the high card--to the nine--the low card.) Each standard deck has 13 cards in each suit, ranging from the ace (one) to the king (the 13th). Some games require a deck of fewer than 52 cards. Such a deck is easily made up by taking cards out of the standard deck. The game that uses probably the largest number of cards is casino blackjack, a simplified form of poker popular with gamblers. Normally four decks of cards are shuffled together to play this game.

Card players may compete against each other either singly or in partnerships. In a game such as poker, each individual player seeks to get the best combination of cards and thereby win the game. In partnership games two or more people take on an equal number of opponents.

Each game has its own precise rules, but certain procedures are standard for most contests. First the cards must be dealt, or distributed. The first dealer is often someone who has cut the highest card from the deck before play starts. As many cards as the game requires are dealt in a clockwise fashion, the first card going to the person at the dealer's left. This is the normal rotation of play in most countries, though in Spain, Italy, and Latin America some games are dealt and played counterclockwise.

In most games the cards are shuffled before dealing, and it is usually the practice to have someone cut them first, creating two piles that are placed together again with the one that was originally on the bottom put on the top. Cards are usually dealt facedown and one at a time, though some varieties of poker call for some cards to be dealt faceup. In a few games two or more cards are dealt to each player at a time.

In some games--bridge, for example--all 52 cards are dealt, each player receiving 13 of them. In poker and rummy games only a limited number of cards are given to each player, and the rest of the deck remains on the table in a pile called the stock, or simply the pile. As play proceeds, cards from the pile may be taken or given to add to the hand. Sometimes a player must discard from the hand the same number of cards as that taken from the pile.

The play of card-capturing games depends on the ranking, or number order, of the cards. Normally the exception is that an ace (number one) is the highest ranking card, making the two the lowest. The play consists of each player laying a card on the table. The player who puts down the highest-ranking card wins the turn. Each turn may be called a trick; thus these games are also called trick-taking games. When all tricks have been played, the hand is over.

A great number of card-capturing games use what is called a trump suit. The word trump is a form of the word triumph. Trumps are winning cards because of values that have been assigned to them in the game. If, for instance, it has been decided that spades are the trump suit, the lowest spade is able to capture the highest ranking card in another suit.

The most common card-capturing games are bridge, whist, euchre, hearts, and all-fours. Each of these has several varieties. The most popular of all is bridge, specifically contract bridge. It is played by millions of people in their homes and at local, state, national, and international tournaments. Contract bridge was devised in the 1920s by a New Yorker named Harold S. Vanderbilt. It was based on a very popular trick-taking game called whist, which probably originated in the 17th century in England.

Contract bridge takes longer to learn to play well than any other card game. Thousands of books have been written about it and many thousands of newspaper columns explain the play of specific hands.

Bidding establishes both the contract and the trump suit or, in some cases, whether the game is to be played with no-trump. The dealer opens the bidding, which then moves clockwise: if south opens, west bids next, then north followed by east.

Proper evaluation of the hand is one of the most difficult things to learn in bridge. Several methods of evaluation have been devised. One of the most widely used is the point-count system originated by Charles H. Goren in the 1940s. Simply stated, this system assigns numerical value to high cards: ace = 4, king = 3, queen = 2, and jack = 1.

Values are also assigned for distribution: If a player has no cards in a certain suit (called a void), this is worth three points as well. The reason is that if there are no cards of a suit in a hand, a trump card may be used to take a trick in that suit. The player has as much control for one round of play as if the hand included an ace. If the void becomes the trump suit of the opposition, however, it is worthless.

Based on the point-count system, the value of all cards assigned points totals 40. It has been determined that between them a partnership needs about 26 points to make, or win, a contract of three or four tricks (nine or ten, counting book). To make a contract of six or seven tricks, of course, requires a higher point count.

Partners bid in an attempt to reach a contract that can win the game in the play of one hand. The number of tricks required for a game varies, depending on whether the contract is in no-trump or in a suit. To get a game in no-trump requires winning a contract of three, a book of six tricks plus three more. A game in spades or hearts (the major suits) requires winning a contract of four, and a game in diamonds or clubs (minor suits) requires winning a contract of five. It is also possible, for extra points, to bid beyond game to six or seven, called a small slam or a grand slam respectively.

Bids range from one to seven in any suit or in no-trump. But the ranking of suits determines the value of a bid. No-trump has the highest rank, followed in order by spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. If the dealer opens with a bid of one no-trump, the next bid must be at the two level. Conversely, an opening bid of one club may be followed by a bid of one diamond, one heart, one spade, or one no-trump. A bid of one spade can be followed by one no-trump, but any suit bid must be at the two level.

There are 36 possible bids: from one to seven in no-trump and the four suits, and a pass, which is essentially no bid. A player with a bad hand may pass. But a pass must be as intelligently made as any other bid. Many beginning players, not knowing what to do even with good cards, will pass out of frustration. This sends a wrong signal to the partner as well as to the opposition. Many a good contract has not been arrived at because of bad passes.

Based on the point-count system, a player can open a normal hand (of which there are very few) with a total of about 14 points in high cards or in distribution. There is, of course, some hope that the partner's bid will indicate that they can make game in one hand. Naturally the opposition partners have the same goal in mind, so bidding is always competitive. If a partnership gets into a bid that the opposition thinks cannot be made, a member of the other team may say "double." What this does is increase penalties in the scoring for the team that does not make a contract that it has bid. If, however, the partners feel positive that they can make the contract, they may "redouble," which increases their points if they actually make what they bid. The use of the double can be considered a kind of bid. It is often used as a way of keeping the bidding open, or it can be used to inform a partner that they may yet find a bid somewhere. Doubling or redoubling, however, does not interfere with the order of bidding or with the rank of suits. For example, a double of two diamonds may be followed by a bid of two hearts but not by a bid of two clubs.

The player's goal is to get the highest ranking "hand," or arrangement of cards. From the highest to the lowest, the standard hands are: royal flush, the five highest cards from ten through ace in any single suit; straight flush, five cards of the same suit in numerical order (in the case of more than one straight flush, the one with the top card wins); four of a kind, such as four kings or four sixes (the extra card does not count in a five-card holding); full house, two of one kind of card and three of another (two fours and three eights, for instance); flush, five cards of the same suit not in sequence; a straight, five cards in sequence but not of the same suit; three of a kind, such as three tens (the highest three of a kind wins); two pairs, such as two fours and two sevens (the highest pair determines the winner); one pair; and high card.

Before the deal each player may put an amount of money into the pot. This is called the ante. The dealer gives each player five cards, one at a time. The first player may open or pass. The player who opens the betting must hold a pair of jacks or better. If he passes, the next player opens, or passes. Once a player opens the others must put an amount of money into the pot equal to that put there by the opener, fold (drop out of the game), or raise (bet even more money). All players who stay in the hand have the right to a draw of a maximum of three cards from the dealer's stock in order to improve their hands. They must, however, discard as many cards as they draw.

Each player is dealt the required number of cards: seven in straight rummy or ten in gin rummy. The rest of the cards are the pile. Each player is allowed to draw from the pile one card at a time in turn. He must discard faceup a card from his hand for each one he keeps from the draw.

The discard pile may also be used to draw from. When the whole stock has been drawn, the discard pile is reshuffled and put face-down on the table for drawing again.

The players use the drawn cards to form sets or sequences. In rummy, the player who is first able to lay completed sets or sequences on the table without any cards left over in his hand has won a round.