The word "扑克牌" (pūkè pái) is formed through a combination of phonetic borrowing and semantic clarification: "扑克" (pūkè) is a direct phonetic transliteration of the English word "poker," capturing its sound, while the character "牌" (pái), meaning "card" or "tile," is added as a semantic determinative to specify that the word refers to a type of playing card, thus creating the complete and clear compound noun for "playing cards" or specifically "poker cards."