Joker (playing card) 6 Jokers (3 different pairs) in a 52-card French deck. German Rummy uses 2 packs of French playing cards, with 3 Jokers per pack. The Joker is often compared to "(the) Fool" in the Tarot or Tarock decks. They share many similarities both in appearance and play function. In Central Europe, the Fool, or "Sküs", is the highest trump; elsewhere as an "excuse" ("L'Excuse") that can be played at any time to avoid following suit but cannot win. Practitioners of cartomancy often include a Joker in the standard 52-card deck with a meaning similar to the Fool card of Tarot.
Curse of Scotland cards. It contains a "Pope" card (and, indeed, a "Popess") but there seems to be no connection with the Pope Joan card game, even though the popess may have derived from the mythical Pope Joan. The expression "Curse of Scotland" is sometimes used simply to refer to an occasion of bad luck at cards and can also refer to generally unwanted situations in Scotland, such as swarms of midges. There is a theatrical superstition, sometimes called the "Scottish curse", that speaking the name "Macbeth" in the theatre brings bad luck. Hence "the Scottish Play" is used to refer to Shakespeare's