Card game culture has led to the near-universal popularity and availability of French-suited playing cards even in areas with their own regional card art. In Japan, a distinct 48-card hanafuda deck is popular. It is derived from 16th-century Portuguese decks, after undergoing a long evolution driven by laws enacted by the Tokugawa shogunate attempting to ban the use of playing cards The best-known deck internationally is the 52-card Anglo-American deck used for such games as poker and contract bridge. It contains one card for each unique combination of thirteen "ranks" and the four French "suits" "spades", "hearts", "diamonds", and "clubs". The ranks
Card reading (bridge) Card reading (bridge) In contract bridge, card reading (or counting the hand) is the process of inferring which remaining cards are held by each opponent. The reading is based on information gained in the bidding and the play to previous tricks. The technique is used by the declarer and defenders primarily to determine the probable suit distribution and card holdings of each unseen ; determination of the location of specific spot-cards may be critical as well. Card reading is based on the fact that there are thirteen cards in each of four suits and thirteen cards in each of four