Anyone even remotely into playing cards? And what I mean, is anyone into the cards themselves?
My favorite paper playing cards are "Bee" cards. I have handled some that are better, but they are not commercially available and my guess is that most people would think they are too stiff. They were almost like playing with wooden planks. Anyway, "bee" cards are pretty badass, and being from Utah I've always liked the bee and hive ace of spades.
But I got past paper playing cards a long time ago. Started with KEM cellulose acetate cards, which for a long time were considered the finest plastic cards available. Then the went out of production and single decks of "KEM Arrows" poker sized cards were going for $40 or more. Then, ugh, they were bought by US Playing Card Co, the secret cellulose acetate formula was sold along with them and they began production again. They are still good, but they aren't crazy good. They aren't as good as they used to be. A little soft, a little less snap, worse quality control.
Modiano and Dal Negro both attempted to make cellulose acetate cards during the KEM hiatus. Dal Negro made a fantastic cellulose acetate card on their "Freedom" line. They were bar none my favorite playing card ever...until while practice dealing I pitched a card into a chip stack and the card cracked. I read up on the cards and they had a problem with brittleness. I have a set of Modiano cellulose acetate cards and they are pretty nice, but don't have what either the KEMs, which are soft but velvety and durable as a copper penny, or the Dal Negro's, which snapped like firecrackers, but they have held up well. I've used them for many of my home games.
Most plastic playing cards are PVC. Copag is a good brand, but nothing exciting. Dal Negro is an awesome brand for PVC cards. Modiano is probably best in the PVC category.
I always try to get jumbo index because on an 8ft table it's hard to see the cards if you're at one of the far ends. I have some sets that are 4-color and some that are 4-pip. I think I have in the neighborhood of 20 sets (2 decks per set) of top-end plastic cards. Many of you played in my games not really knowing that for me the cards were king. I put way too much time and effort thinking about what cards to use and why to use them. I hope that you can take my word that in most cases you were treated to an experience that only a select few in this world get to experience, a poke game played with the best playing cards ever made in human history.
But I want to talk about my most favorite playing cards of all time. Brown Box Casino KEM Circle Backs. Now, these cards are soft. Not typically what I go for in a card. I really like snap. But I bought these during the KEM hiatus and these were the prize of all prizes in the playing card scene. To get a box of brand new cards you basically had to find a stash of unused cards from a casino that went out of business, as these cards were only sold to casinos. The circle back design was a classic. The funny thing is that these were bridge sized cards. A little trivia, casino poker rooms only use bridge sized cards and 99% of the time they use plastic cards, while blackjack typically uses poker sized paper cards. But during the KEM hiatus poker sized cards were typically in higher demand, and the Arrow design was in the most demand. But a step up from an unopened box of poker sized KEM arrows in red and blue was the Brown Box Casino KEM circle backs.
Couldn't even find an image of Red/Blue Circle Backs so here's Green/Brown.
So I used my Circle Backs for the majority of games I played while I was in the Navy. That's probably easily over 200 games. After that they developed a bend. I tried a method I found online to correct the bend and ended up destroying one deck of my most cherished cards. It was honestly one of the worst days of my life. I know that sounds pretty silly, but I'm not kidding.
One last note. I have a few decks of Desjgns cards. The coolest thing about these cards is that I have met, played poker with and hosted the person who desjned them in my home poker games (where he acted as a dedicated dealer... because he like handling cards and stuff.). These are well respected playing cards. His artwork is unique and pretty awesome. (desjne is a mashup of J Design, they guy's name is Jason).
So yeah, anyone else into playing cards?
My favorite paper playing cards are "Bee" cards. I have handled some that are better, but they are not commercially available and my guess is that most people would think they are too stiff. They were almost like playing with wooden planks. Anyway, "bee" cards are pretty badass, and being from Utah I've always liked the bee and hive ace of spades.
But I got past paper playing cards a long time ago. Started with KEM cellulose acetate cards, which for a long time were considered the finest plastic cards available. Then the went out of production and single decks of "KEM Arrows" poker sized cards were going for $40 or more. Then, ugh, they were bought by US Playing Card Co, the secret cellulose acetate formula was sold along with them and they began production again. They are still good, but they aren't crazy good. They aren't as good as they used to be. A little soft, a little less snap, worse quality control.
Modiano and Dal Negro both attempted to make cellulose acetate cards during the KEM hiatus. Dal Negro made a fantastic cellulose acetate card on their "Freedom" line. They were bar none my favorite playing card ever...until while practice dealing I pitched a card into a chip stack and the card cracked. I read up on the cards and they had a problem with brittleness. I have a set of Modiano cellulose acetate cards and they are pretty nice, but don't have what either the KEMs, which are soft but velvety and durable as a copper penny, or the Dal Negro's, which snapped like firecrackers, but they have held up well. I've used them for many of my home games.
Most plastic playing cards are PVC. Copag is a good brand, but nothing exciting. Dal Negro is an awesome brand for PVC cards. Modiano is probably best in the PVC category.
I always try to get jumbo index because on an 8ft table it's hard to see the cards if you're at one of the far ends. I have some sets that are 4-color and some that are 4-pip. I think I have in the neighborhood of 20 sets (2 decks per set) of top-end plastic cards. Many of you played in my games not really knowing that for me the cards were king. I put way too much time and effort thinking about what cards to use and why to use them. I hope that you can take my word that in most cases you were treated to an experience that only a select few in this world get to experience, a poke game played with the best playing cards ever made in human history.
But I want to talk about my most favorite playing cards of all time. Brown Box Casino KEM Circle Backs. Now, these cards are soft. Not typically what I go for in a card. I really like snap. But I bought these during the KEM hiatus and these were the prize of all prizes in the playing card scene. To get a box of brand new cards you basically had to find a stash of unused cards from a casino that went out of business, as these cards were only sold to casinos. The circle back design was a classic. The funny thing is that these were bridge sized cards. A little trivia, casino poker rooms only use bridge sized cards and 99% of the time they use plastic cards, while blackjack typically uses poker sized paper cards. But during the KEM hiatus poker sized cards were typically in higher demand, and the Arrow design was in the most demand. But a step up from an unopened box of poker sized KEM arrows in red and blue was the Brown Box Casino KEM circle backs.
Couldn't even find an image of Red/Blue Circle Backs so here's Green/Brown.
So I used my Circle Backs for the majority of games I played while I was in the Navy. That's probably easily over 200 games. After that they developed a bend. I tried a method I found online to correct the bend and ended up destroying one deck of my most cherished cards. It was honestly one of the worst days of my life. I know that sounds pretty silly, but I'm not kidding.
One last note. I have a few decks of Desjgns cards. The coolest thing about these cards is that I have met, played poker with and hosted the person who desjned them in my home poker games (where he acted as a dedicated dealer... because he like handling cards and stuff.). These are well respected playing cards. His artwork is unique and pretty awesome. (desjne is a mashup of J Design, they guy's name is Jason).
So yeah, anyone else into playing cards?
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