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The History of card games (UK)

No one knows exactly who invented playing cards but it seems likely that they were first introduced into the UK in the 14th century. At this time they were more or less a copy of existing French cards. The cards were all hand painted and nobility were the only ones to use them.

Playing cards were engraved for the first time around 1445 and were probably produced near Basle, Switzerland. This is deduced from the styles of clothing on the pitcher cards. The four suits of Clubs, Hearts, Spades and Diamonds appear to be a mixture of cards from Italy, Spain, Germany and France.

The Spanish cards were from wooden clubs, Coins, Cups and Swords. While the French cards had Hearts, Pikes, paving tiles and a sort of three leaf clover. The German cards had Hearts, Acorns, Bells and Leaves.
The English took the French Trefoil but called it after the Spanish Club. They took the Pike, altered it a little and added the Spanish word for Sword (Espada) and this became the spade. The Heart came from either the French or German. Diamonds may have been derived from the French paving tile.

Shuffling a deck of cards

Hold the deck in the right hand between the thumb and four fingers. The left thumb now approaches the deck and starts to pull the cards off the top of the deck in small packets, which are gathered in the left hand until all the cards in the right hand are exhausted.When playing cards, the deck should always be shuffle before each game starts. It is also customary to offer the deck to another player and ask him to 'cut the deck'.

Hold the deck in the right hand as shown. Allow half of the deck to release itself by springing the cards slightly, so that approximately half of the deck is resting on the tips of the left fingers.

Take this half of the deck in the left hand, so that you now have half the deck in exactly the same position in each hand and bend them as shown by applying pressure with the forefingers on to the back of each packet.
Now allow the cards to riffle downwards on to the tabletop, the cards from both packets being released at the same time. The cards will automatically interleave.

Once the cards are exhausted, push the interleaved cards together and square them up. Now finally pass them to someone to cut the pack, then deal them out. The amount of time spent on shuffling the pack is important, this stops people thinking your a cheat ! :)