Over in England, printers followed suit (pardon the pun) about 20 years later. Playing card manufacturers in the United States picked up on this fashion very quickly, and started to include these new cards in their printing process. These necessitated an additional trump card - the Imperial Bower, or Best Bower - which was introduced as the highest-possible trump card. The use of the word Joker meaning someone who jokes was already in circulation, but the concept of how a Joker playing card is used, without doubt stems from the game Euchre.Īround 1860, fans of Euchre created new rules for the game. Some people are of the opinion that the name Joker is derived from Euchre but that’s unlikely to be more than a simple coincidence. Yup, of course The United States Playing Cards Company! But why do decks have jokers? Let’s find out. Just a few years before a certain popular manufacturer of playing cards was started in Cincinnati. The very first Jokers started to be seen in decks of playing cards in the 1860s.

Are jokers used in poker