Hi Trev perhaps markers to be used during 'five suited poker/bridge' games?
Just about all variants of poker have been played with four suits during the two centuries the game has been around, but attempts have been made now and then to introduce a fifth suit. Probably the most notable of these attempts occurred in the late 1930s when a five-suited, 65-card deck was briefly introduced. In the United States, the fifth suit -- “eagles” -- was printed in green.
Around the same time in England there were five-suited decks produced with the fifth suit printed in blue and called “royals.”
In truth, the five-suited decks were not really made for poker but rather for bridge, which by the late 1930s was enjoying a major boom in popularity in the U.S. According to “As They Saw It” (a neat website that compiles information from news articles about various 20th-century topics), there were something between 12 and 15 million bridge players in America at this time. Worldwide the game had taken off in a big way, too, with the World Bridge Olympic in
1938 attracting nearly 200,000 players from 57 different countries.
Much as we’ve seen happen in poker over the last decade with the introduction of new games coming in the wake of the explosion in popularity that has occurred, the bridge boom also inspired some attempts at innovation, including the idea of five-suited bridge. Apparently the idea originated in Austria, moved over to England, then made it to the U.S.
http://hardboiledpoker.blogspot.com/201 ... poker.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;"
Oel
