If you are new to cards you might be wondering how many face cards there are in a standard deck of 52 cards.
In this post, you will learn what the face cards are, how many face cards are in a deck of cards, what those face cards are, and what their probabilities are.
In a deck of cards, there are two types of card values. These two types of values are the numbers cards (including the Ace) and the face cards.
Each suit gets assigned one of each value card from Ace to King. These values are:
Ace
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Jack
Queen
King
The face cards are all the value cards that are either the Jacks, Queens and Kings.
Why are they called face cards?
The reason they are called the face cards is that the Jacks, Queens and Kings are the only cards that have pictures of people on them, which have faces. All of the rest of the cards are number cards and just have a number, along with the number of pips (the symbol for the suit) in the middle of the card equal to the value of that card. For example, the 2 of Clubs has two small pictures of the club in the middle of the card or two pips.
Face cards are also referred to as royalty cards since they are represented by positions of royalty.
The number of face cards in a deck of 52 cards, is 12 cards. We know this because the face cards are all the Jacks, Queens, and Kings. And each suit gets one of each of these cards. There are 4 suits in a deck of cards.
Since there are 3 face cards in each suit, and 4 suits total, then we know that 3×4=12, or 12 total face cards in a deck of 52 cards.
Face Cards in a Deck
All the face cards in a deck of 52 cards are the:
Jack of Hearts
Queen of Hearts
King of Hearts
Jack of Diamonds
Queen of Diamonds
King of Diamonds
Jack of Spades
Queen of Spades
King of Spades
Jack of Clubs
Queen of Clubs
King of Clubs
King Cards
The King cards are represented by the picture of a King with the letter ‘K’ in the corner of each King card.
The King cards are the King of Spades, King of Hearts, King of Diamonds and King of Clubs.
How Many Kings are in a Deck of Cards?
There are 4 Kings in a deck of cards. Each of the 4 suits in a deck gets one King each. This means the Kings in a deck are the:
There are 6 red face cards in a deck. This is because there are 3 face cards in each suit, the Jack, Queen and King, and there are 2 suits that are red. The two red suits are the Diamonds and Hearts.
There are 6 black face cards in a deck. This is because there are 3 face cards in each suit, the Jack, Queen and King, and there are 2 suits that are black. The two black suits are the Spades and Clubs.
There are 40 non-face cards in a deck. This is because each suit has 10 non-face cards. And since there are a total of 4 suits in a deck, this means there are a total of 40 non-face cards.
The non-face cards are the Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 of each suit.
Another way to look at it, is there are 52 cards in a deck. (See How Many Cards are In a Deck?) If there are 12 face cards, then we know this leaves 40 cards in the deck that will not be face cards. This is because 52-12 will give us a total of 40.
Face Cards in Probability
Let’s look at the probability of getting a face card in a deck of 52 cards.
There are 12 face cards total in a deck of cards, out of 52 cards. This means the probability of choosing a face card would be 12/52, which is reduced to 3/13.
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