Online Poker. Poker Chips, Tables & Accessories

Royal playing cards

Single deck of Royal washable 100% plastic playing cards, measuring roughly 58mm x 88mm, in a hard plastic box. Excellent value.

Linen playing cards

Single deck of casino-grade linen Excelsior playing cards from Dal Negro measuring roughly 63mm x 88mm. Available with red or blue back

Plastic-backed poker cards

Single deck of casino-grade plastic-backed Torcello poker cards from Dal Negro measuring roughly 63mm x 88mm. Harder-wearing than the linen cards and slide easier for dealing. 

Bicycle Poker Cards

Single deck of Bicycle poker-size playing cards measuring roughly 63mm x 88mm with 'Rider Back' and air-cushion finish. //includes basic instruction cards on playing Texas Hold'em.  

Used casino cards

Single decks of used casino cards with the casino details on the reverse. These packs are hardly used, but have been cancelled by clipping of the corner and/or the edges marked with pen. Some have only been played with for one hand, and are mostly from top casinos in Las Vegas. Note the colours on the reverse may vary and the designs are different for each casino.

Dal Negro Super Index

A single deck of the new Dal Negro 'Blackjack' cards (64mm x 89mm) with Super Index. Available with red back or blue back  

KEM Super Index

A single deck of the new KEM Super Index cards (57mm x 89mm) with Super Index in a hard-plastic storage box. Available with brown back or green back (pictured).

Sorry - only brown-back available. KEM has been sold to another company who have ceased production until next year; no date given. 

KEM Double pack

Double pack of KEM 'casino poker' cards, one deck green-backed and one deck brown-backed in a rigid black plastic case. Standard index. 

Poker Box

Walnut box with artistic painting on the lid. Contains one deck of quality playing cards. Size: 11.1 x 8.2 x 3.4 cm. 

Plastic vs. Coated Plastic

Bicycle, Bee, Tally-ho, Aviator, WPT and WSOP cards are coated plastic cards, meaning that they are made of paper and have a plastic coating. KEM, COPAG, and Royal make 100% plastic cards. Some manufacturers make both types of cards so make sure you buy the correct deck.

Paper (coated plastic) cards mark easily and don't bend back into shape. They only last a tournament or two before they must be replaced. They become dirty and sticky and don't slide as well as they once did. The colors are bright but fade fast as the cards wear out.

Plastic cards bend back into shape, can get wet, are very hard to mark, are easier to clean, and are easier to shuffle and handle. They are more expensive but are worth the money in the long run. Poker players have a tendency to leave their hole cards on the table and simply bend half the card up to see what the cards are. This has a tendency to warp or bow the cards over time. Plastic cards help to minimize this nuisance. (Placing a cut card and weight on top of your unused cards also helps!) Plastic cards slide very easily on just about anything and they can feel strange to shuffle at first but once you start using them, you'll never want to go back to paper cards.

Poker Size or Bridge Size?

Standard playing cards are 3.5" long. Poker (Wide) size cards are 2.5" (62mm) wide and Bridge size cards are 2.25" (57mm) wide.

Most casinos and poker rooms use bridge size (yes, bridge) cards because they are easier to handle and shuffle than the larger poker size cards. People with small hands definitely prefer the smaller size of the bridge size cards but many old-timers find that they feel kinda 'light-weight' after playing with the wide size cards.

Standard (Regular) Index or Large (Jumbo) Index?

Standard and Large Index refers to the size of the numbers and pips on the card. Large index cards have larger, easier-to-read numbers than standard cards.

The Large Index cards are good to use on larger oval poker tables because it is much easier to see the board cards (flop, turn, river) from the far-away end seats. On the other hand, Large Index cards are worse as hole cards (down cards) because you have to expose more of your card to view it.

Use standard index cards unless your players are nearly blind or your overhead lighting is inadequate.

KEM Plastic Playing Cards   www.kem-cards.com

These cards are the best. They look different and feel different and are durable, washable and guaranteed! The cards are made from cellulose acetate and will normally last at least 30 times longer than a paper card. They will not warp or stick together as many other cards will. KEM cards are long-lasting, odorless and washable, resist scuffing and breaking, are clean and crisp, fresh and flexible. They are the least expensive on a per-play basis. They should normally last for at least a year or two of weekly tournament play.

KEM cards are thicker than other cards. They are quite a bit thicker than Royal cards and also a bit thicker than COPAG cards.

If your card does get damaged, it will probably chip at the corner or crack. Single card replacements take about 6 weeks and are  suppose to be available for 5 years on their most popular cards. Take note that no replacements are currently available due to the closure of the KEM manufacturing plant. It has been reported that replacements will again be available in early 2005.

KEM cards have a tendency to bow. It is advisable to place a cut card and weight on top of unused cards. This will help prevent warping.

It is getting somewhat difficult to find good deals on KEM cards. The going rate was $20 and up for a set of two decks but as of the summer of 2004 it appears that the KEM Card manufacturing plant is temporarily shut down. This means that KEM cards may soon be in short supply and much harder to find, resulting in higher prices. Wide size KEM cards are already becoming somewhat rare and high-priced. Ebay has some of the best deals on KEM cards.

Probably the most sought-after poker playing card available today would be the KEM Arrow Wide Regular Index in either red or blue (that's them in the scanned images shown above). The going price for two decks of these cards is now about $75.

COPAG Plastic Playing Cards www.copagcards.com

This Brazilian manufacturer was founded in 1908 and makes several lines of playing cards including 100% Plastic cards in either bridge or poker size. COPAG has recently enlarged their sales marketing in North America so we should begin to hear more from this card manufacturer.

I reviewed the 100% Plastic 'Export' Bridge size cards. They are lighter and feel more like paper than a KEM card. They seem to have less of a plastic texture to them. They bend at the middle a bit easier than a KEM but do not 'bow' over time as a KEM card has a tendency to do. They seem to slide better than a KEM and they are a bit more slick. The COPAG cards seemed light to me but I weighed them against other bridge size cards and they all came in at 2 grams per card (20 grams per 10 cards).

The colors on COPAG cards are a bit fainter and fade quicker than a KEM card. They have an off-white background color to them. You can see the off-white in the scanned images shown above. The KEM cards also had the same off-white background, but in a different shade of white.

COPAG cards come in a cardboard box very similar to a Bicycle or Bee deck, but much stiffer. The cardboard box is much higher quality but not nearly as nice as the boxes that KEM or (especially) Royal cards come in. The top lid of my box consistently came open and would not remain closed. Update: I have received information from several readers that COPAG Cards now come in a very nice plastic box.

COPAG 100% Plastic Playing Cards are about $8 per deck which is 1/2 the price of KEM cards. They certainly seem worth the money and with the possibility of shortages in KEM cards, are a very good alternative. At half the price, even if they don't last quite as long as KEM cards, they are still a good buy. They are more than half the quality at less than half the cost.

There is no manufacturer's replacement policy for lost or damaged COPAG cards. Newly purchased defective decks will be replaced but you cannot order one card replacements.

Royal Plastic Playing Cards

These cards have a more plastic feel and shiny look to them than the other plastic cards. They have the same plastic feel as the KEM's but with much less texture - they feel smoother and more glossy, perhaps a little more slippery. They have an almost 'mirror' like feel and look to them.

The Royal cards had the deepest colors. The blacks were a vivid, darker black and the red was a deep blood color. KEM cards had the second deepest colors. The Royal cards had the most shine to them. The colors on these cards began to fade fairly quickly. One tournament was fine but I noticed substantial color loss during the second tournament.

The Royal cards had the brightest white. These cards were such a bright and shiny white that is hard to see the left edge of the cards in the scans shown above. The Bee cards were the second brightest cards.

These are the lowest priced of the plastic cards and are about 1/3 the cost of KEM cards, costing as low as $3 each. They will not last as long as other plastic cards, but cost quite a bit less. The corners will begin to chip after a few uses but they are a fair deal for the money.

Royal Plastic Playing Cards come in a very nice plastic case, the best of all the cards reviewed here.

Bicycle Playing Cards www.usplayingcard.com

These may be the most popular cards used in North American homes. They are available for sale in many places, including the check-out line at your local grocery store. You can also buy them by the dozen at many outlet stores such as Target, Sam's, or Costco. Depending on how many you buy, you can get them for a buck or two per deck.

These are a paper card coated in plastic. They have a cross-hatch texture but not as pronounced as the Bee cards. They feel fine at first but quickly deteriorate during play.

These are a paper card and will last only a tournament or two before they become unusable and need to be replaced with a new deck. They cannot be washed. They will become dirty and sticky. It is also easy for players to mark these cards - indent a fingernail into the corner of an ace and gain an advantage over the other players.

Bee Playing Cards www.usplayingcard.com

The Bee 'Club Special' cards are plastic coated paper cards. They have the most prominent cross-hatch texture (little lines) of any of the cards reviewed here. You can see the texture in the large images of the cards above.

Bee's are slightly more expensive and don't last as long as Bicycles, but they are perhaps a little higher quality card than the Bicycles.

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