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Which card game first used the joker as the highest trump?
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playing cards
Euchre hand with the five highest cards if spades are trump.
The card game that first introduced the joker as the highest trump is euchre.
Invented in the 1860s for American euchre, the joker was created to serve as the "best bower," or the topmost trump card, effectively acting as a glorified jack. The term "bower" is derived from the German word Bauer, meaning "farmer" or "jack," and the joker's role as the highest trump was an extension of the existing hierarchy where the jacks of the trump suit and the other suit of the same color were already the top-ranking cards. While the joker is used in many modern games, such as canasta or poker, where it often functions as a wild card, its original purpose was specifically as the highest trump in euchre.123