Poker Playing Cards

Poker playing cards for sale, we supply professional plastic casino playing cards from different brands like USPC, Bicycle, KEM, Fournier, Cartamundi, WPT, WSOP, Modiano and COPAG.

1. 12 Decks - Motor Brand Playing Cards - Poker Size Regular Index - Blue $ 9.95. 12 Decks - Motor Brand Playing Cards - Poker Size Regular Index - Red $ 9.95. Copag 1546 Playing Cards Black/Gold Bridge Size Jumbo Index. Copag 1546 Playing Cards Black/Gold Bridge Size Regular Index.
2. The standard 52-card deck of French-suited playing cards is the most common pack of playing cards used today. a In English-speaking countries it is the only traditional pack used for playing cards; in many countries of the world, however, it is used alongside other traditional, often older, standard packs with different suit symbols and pack.
3. There are 9215 poker playing cards for sale on Etsy, and they cost $13.63 on average. The most common poker playing cards material is metal. The most popular color?
4. The United States Playing Card Company, the company that manufacturers most decks of playing cards here in the United States, bought KEM playing cards in 2004. If you were to ever compete in the World Series of Poker, then KEM playing cards would be the deck that you would be using at the poker table.

When hosting a poker game, the quality of the deck of playing cards you employ is an important key to the enjoyment of your players. Flimsy, low-quality cards are to be avoided at all costs. There really is no reason to be a cheapskate on this front, since even high-end casino quality decks of cards are really not that expensive. Take my advice, spend the extra few bucks, and purchase some good looking quality playing cards.

The 3 best quality playing card brands

Now let’s go through the types of playing cards so that you know what types to avoid and which to choose.

Types Of Playing Cards

There are basically two types of construction used in making playing cards. There is vinyl, sometimes plastic coated, decks of cards and 100% plastic cards. The former is the cheap kind of cards that you find in any typical department store. While they are inexpensive, they are generally constructed of cheap materials and subject to being bent or torn easily. The most common brand associated with this type of card is Bicycle. Avoid these cards at all costs!

To that end, this article will focus on my favorite three brands of high quality, durable playing cards. Let’s go through them in turn.

The Top Playing Card Brands

#1. KEM Playing Cards

The most expensive brand. The preferred card used at the WSOP & WPT. Extreme durability, the brand that all other cards are compared to.

#2. Copag Playing Cards

A less expensive, a bit lighter, high-quality card. They are a bit more slippery but are the best alternative to KEM. My personal favorite.

#3. Modiano Playing Cards

The least expensive of the three. A very nice option if you like a bit more weight or heft to your cards. A bit different than the other two, but Italian quality makes them worth a look.

Reviews

1. KEM

Poker Playing Cards Amazon

The most expensive brand of the three. Manufactured out of 100% Cellulose Acetate, KEM playing cards are the most common quality deck of cards in the world. In fact, most casinos and card rooms employ this brand. This is also the card used in the WSOP and WPT.

These cards are a bit thinner than their competitors, but not so much as to cause a problem. They are not “slippery” at all and the top cards do not slide off when you set them down. This is one of the most noticeable traits of any good deck of playing cards. KEM cards are also are known to have legendary durability. There’s a reason casinos use these cards, they last a long time! You would likely go through 10 or more decks of Bicycle cards before wearing these out.

Get these KEM cards (Click see them on Amazon) if you want to play the cards “seen on TV” or in casinos. Also available jumbo index, which I highly recommend due to their enhanced readability.

2. Copag

Copags are my personal favorite and reasonably priced as well. The flexibility and thickness just seem to strike the right balance. They are slightly more slippery than the other high-end brands, but not in an annoying way.

There is not much in the way of texture to the surface and they have an overall lighter weight to them, which I find appealing. In my opinion, these cards shuffle the best and just exude quality and are perhaps the favorite of top players around the world.

My advice is that if you are unsure of which brand to try, go with Copag. Try these black and golds, my favorite deck color. Or, if this is your first time purchasing Copag cards, I recommend that you buy the dealer’s kit, which comes with nice buttons for the button, small blind, and big blind. Also available with jumbo index.

3. Modiano

As the least pricey quality brand, Italian made Modiano cards are thicker and heavier than all of the other brands of high-end playing cards, with a more “hefty” feel to them. It takes some getting used to these cards if you have been using other high-end brands.

They are not as smooth and many variations have a sort of light texture to them. Often, people either love or hate Modiano playing cards, due to their noticeable differences to what most people may be used to. I advise that you only try this brand out if you like cards with a bit more weight to them.

Overall, these are awesome decks of cards. I recommend trying out the Da Vinci Ruotes regular or jumbo index, I think you will really like them.

When it comes to purchasing the best playing cards for hosting the perfect poker night, here are a few things to consider.

• Playing Card Size
  There are numerous different sizes of playing cards, but the vast majority of non-standard sized cards are just manufactured for novelty cards. When it comes to quality playing cards, you have two basic options; poker size (2.5″ x 3.5″) or bridge size (2.25″ x 3.5″). Unless you just happen to like slightly narrower cards, I would just stick to the standard poker sized cards. Otherwise, your buddies might tilt their heads slightly on the first hand of the poker night and say, “something isn’t right here.”
• Glare
  Having meticulously compared all 3 brands, I don’t feel glare is an issue on any of them. However, if you just go by how shiny the cards are I would say that KEM reflects light the most, with Copag having the dullest sheen of them all. Modiano cards fall somewhere in the middle. If you play with a lot of bright lights in your poker room and glare is a genuine issue for you, I would go with the Copags. However, I am fairly confident that glare should not be an issue with any of the three. To put things in perspective, tons of casinos use KEM cards and I haven’t ever heard anyone complain about the glare on them. It’s just not a huge concern.
• Readability
  When players discuss the size of the playing card, they are sometimes talking about the index. What that basically means is the size of the numbers or letters on the face of the card. It’s all about personal preference, however, casinos and a lot of professionals prefer the jumbo index size, due to how much easier they are to read further away. Nothing is worse than being at the end of the table and having the flop, turn, and the river being spread out at the opposite end of the poker table. For most people, trying to read regular index would be next to impossible. Therefore, I recommend erring on the side of purchasing jumbo index.

• Feel, Texture, & Thickness
  This is another thing that is all about personal preference. KEM cards are the thinnest of the set and Modiano is the thickest. Copags are the most slippery and Modiano the least, generally due to their heft and slight texture on the face of the cards. KEM feels lighter with almost a “papery” feel to them but still doesn’t have issues sliding around when the deck is set down. Long story short, if you want the feel of cards from the casino, get some KEMs. If you like more heft and texture, try Modiano. Personally, I prefer Copags since they bridge the gap between the variations. Overall, all 3 brands shuffle smoothly and handle very nicely when being dealt.
• Graphics & Back Designs
  As far as the design, graphics, and general look of each brand, KEM, Copag, and Modiano, are all beautifully made cards with a sophisticated and professional look. They all look high quality in every way. I don’t think anyone at your poker game is going to be disappointed, no matter which you choose.

4 Color Options

Summary

Having a poker night is all about the poker and playing cards are the tools of the trade. They are an investment in the fun factor of your home game and should not be overlooked when planning the event. A lot of people focus on having a great poker table or professional poker chips and forget the most important part.

Please, for the love of the poker Gods, do not show up with cheap Bicycle playing cards at your next poker night. You playing partners will thank you for it and think you are the classiest guy around.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to browse my other articles for more poker information.

The Joker is a playing card found in most modern French-suited card decks, as an addition to the standard four suits (Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, and Spades). From the second half of the 20th century, they have also been found in Spanish- and Italian-suited decks, excluding stripped decks. The Joker originated in the United States during the Civil War, and was created as a trump card for the game of Euchre. It has since been adopted into many other card games, where it often acts as a wild card, but may have other functions such as the top trump, a skip card (forcing another player to miss a turn), the lowest-ranking card or the highest-value card. By contrast, a wild card is any card that may be used to represent another card or cards; it need not be a Joker. The Joker is unique within the French pack in that it lacks an industry-wide standard appearance.

Origin[edit]

In the game of Euchre, the highest trump card is the Jack of the trump suit, called the right bower (from the German Bauer or Jack); the second-highest trump, the left bower, is the Jack of the suit of the same color as trumps.^[1][2] The concept appears to have originated from Germany where the games Juckerspiel and Bester Bube ('Best Bower') also used Jacks as best, right and left bowers. Around 1860, American Euchre players may have devised a higher trump, the 'Best Bower', out of a blank card.^[3]

Samuel Hart is credited with printing the first illustrated 'Best Bower' card in 1863 with his 'Imperial Bower'.^[4][5] Best Bower-type Jokers continued to be produced well into the 20th century. Cards labelled 'Joker' began appearing around the late 1860s, with some depicting clowns and jesters. It is believed that the term 'Joker' comes from Jucker or Juckerspiel, the original German spelling of Euchre.^[6][7] One British manufacturer, Charles Goodall, was manufacturing packs with Jokers for the American market in 1871.^[8] The first Joker for the domestic British market was sold in 1874.^[9] Italians call Jokers 'Jolly', for many early cards were labelled 'Jolly Joker'.^[10]

The next game to use a Joker was poker around 1875, where it functioned as a wild card.^[11] Packs with two Jokers started to become the norm during the late 1940s for the game of Canasta.^[12][13][14] Since the 1950s, German and Austrian packs have included three Jokers to play German Rummy; in Poland the third Joker is known as the blue Joker; and in Schleswig-Holstein, Zwickern packs come with six Jokers.^[15]

Appearance[edit]

Jokers do not have any standardized appearance across the card manufacturing industry. Each company produces their own depictions of the card. The publishers of playing cards trademark their Jokers, which have unique artwork that often reflect contemporary culture.^[16] Out of convention, Jokers tend to be illustrated as jesters. There are usually two Jokers per deck, often noticeably different. For instance, the United States Playing Card Company (USPCC) prints their company's guarantee claim on only one. At times, the Jokers will each be colored to match the colors used for suits; e.g., there will be a red Joker and a black Joker. In games where the Jokers may need to be compared, the red, full-color, or larger-graphic Joker usually outranks the black, monochrome, or smaller-graphic one. If the Joker colors are similar, the Joker without a guarantee will outrank the guaranteed one. With the red and black Jokers, the red one can alternately be counted as a Heart/Diamond and the black one can alternately be counted as a Club/Spade. The Unicode for playing cards provide symbols for three Jokers: red, black, and white.

Many decks do not provide the Joker with a corner index symbol; of those that do, the most common is a solid five-pointed star or a star within a circle. It is also very common for decks to simply use a stylized 'J' or the word 'JOKER' in the corner.

Collecting[edit]

Joker collecting has been popular for an unknown amount of time, but with the advent of the Internet and social media, it has emerged as a hobby. Many unusual Jokers are available for purchase online, while other collectible Jokers are catalogued online for viewing. Guinness World Records has recognized Denoto de Santis, an Italian magician, as having the world's largest collection of Jokers.^[17]

Tarot and Tarock card games[edit]

The Joker is often compared to '(the) Fool' in the Tarot or Tarock decks. They share many similarities both in appearance and play function. In central Europe, the Fool, or Sküs, is the highest trump; elsewhere as an 'excuse' (L'Excuse) that can be played at any time to avoid following suit, but cannot win.

Cartomancy[edit]

Practitioners of cartomancy often include a Joker in the standard 52-card deck with a meaning similar to the Fool card of Tarot. Sometimes, the two Jokers are used. An approach is to identify the 'black' Joker with a rank of zero with the Fool and the 'red' Joker with 'the Magician', also known as 'the Juggler', which is a card with a rank of one that is somewhat similar in interpretation and is considered the first step in the 'Fool's Journey'.

Use of the Joker in card games[edit]

In a standard deck, there are usually two Jokers. The Joker's use varies greatly. Many card games omit the card entirely; as a result, Jokers are often used as informal replacements for lost or damaged cards in a deck by simply noting the lost card's rank and suit on the Joker. Other games, such as a 25-card variant of Euchre which uses the Joker as the highest trump, make it one of the most important in the game. Often, the Joker is a wild card, and thereby allowed to represent other existing cards. The term 'Joker's wild' originates from this practice.

The Joker can be an extremely beneficial, or an extremely harmful, card. In Euchre it is often used to represent the highest trump. In poker, it is wild. However, in the children's game named Old Maid, a solitary Joker represents the Old Maid, a card that is to be avoided.

Poker Playing Cards Pictures

Role in multi-player games[edit]

• Euchre, 500: As the highest trump or 'top Bower'.
• Canasta: The Joker, like the deuce, is a wild card. However, the Joker is worth 50 points in melding, as opposed to 20 for the deuce.
• Gin Rummy: a wild card, able to be used as any necessary rank or suit to complete a meld.
• Chase the Joker: An alternative version of Old Maid, where the Joker card is used instead of the Ace.
• Poker: A Joker can be wild, or can be a 'bug', a limited form of wild card which can only be used to complete straights and flushes.
• War: In some variations, beats all other cards.
• Pitch: A point card in some variations. Jokers usually are marked as 'High' and 'Low', one outranking the other.
• Daihinmin: a wild card, or a deuce (which ends the round and clears the discard pile).
• Crazy Eights: a 'skip' card, playable on top of any other card, that forces the next player to lose a turn.
• Spades: uncommon, but can fulfill one of two roles. When playing with three or six players, they are added to make the cards deal evenly (18 or nine cards each, respectively). They are either 'junk' cards playable anytime that cannot win a trick, or they count as the two highest trumps (the two Jokers must be differentiable; the 'big Joker' outranks the 'little Joker'). They also can be used in conjunction with teammates cards to create a pseudo-'trump', i.e. an Ace of Hearts and Joker played together would be counted as an Ace of Spades, inferior only to a natural Ace of Spades.
• Double King Pede: As the lowest-ranked card, but worth 18 points.
• Go Fish: In a game with two players, the Joker pair is often used to bring the number of pairs to 27 and prevent a 13-13 tie.
• Dou dizhu: Jokers are used as the highest value cards; one is little and one is big, usually the colored one being bigger. Both Jokers together is the only unbeatable play.

Role in patience (solitaire) games[edit]

Generally, the Joker is omitted from patience games as in many others of its type. However, there are variations of solitaire games where a Joker does take part, most often as a wild card.

• Forty Thieves: the Joker is placed on the foundations, while the natural card is unavailable. Any applicable cards are placed over the Joker. When the natural card becomes available, it replaces the Joker, which in turn is placed on the top of the foundation pile. When the Joker is placed on an empty foundation, it stays there until an Ace appears.
• Freecell: the Joker functions the same way as mentioned above, but when the natural card it replaces becomes available and the Joker is placed on top, the Joker can be placed on another foundation.
• Golf: where Kings can be built, the Joker, whenever available, is placed on the wastepile as a wild card and any card can be placed over it.
• Klondike: the Joker acts the same way as it is in Forty Thieves. It can also be built while it is still on the tableau. The United States Playing Card Company's version, created by Joli Quentin Kansil, uses two Jokers, with the black joker to be used as a wild black card and the red joker as a wild red card. [1]
• Pyramid: the Joker is discarded together with any available card. In this case, the stock is dealt one card at time and can be reused twice.
• Aces Up: The Jokers are used to clear out a row and are sometimes referred to as 'Joker Bombs'. When a Joker is dealt into a column, the entire column is reshuffled into the stock and that particular Joker is removed from the game. This leaves an empty foundation slot and greatly increases the win rate.

Poker Playing Cards For Sale Cheap

References[edit]

1. ^Parlett, David (1990), The Oxford Guide to Card Games, Oxford University Press, p. 190, ISBN0-19-214165-1
2. ^Beal, George. Playing cards and their story. 1975. New York: Arco Publishing Comoany Inc. p. 58
3. ^Trumps The modern pocket Hoyle. 1868. New York; Dick & Fitzgerald. p. 94.
4. ^Dawson, Tom and Judy. (2014). The Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards. Ch. 5.
5. ^Wintle, Simon. Samuel Hart at The World of Playing Cards. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
6. ^Parlett, David. Euchre at parlettgames.uk. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
7. ^Joker at the International Playing-Card Society. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
8. ^Wintle, Simon (10 April 2008). 'The Evolution, History, and Imagery of Playing Cards'. Collectors Weekly. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
9. ^Goodall, Michael. (2001). 'The Origin of the First English Joker'. The Playing-Card Vol. 29, p.244-246
10. ^Anderson, Matthew. 'The foreign words that seem like English - but aren't'. BBC Culture. BBC Online. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
11. ^Parlett, David (1990), The Oxford Guide to Card Games, Oxford University Press, p. 191, ISBN0-19-214165-1
12. ^Powills, Dorothy. (1989). 'A Voice From the Past'. Chicago Playing Cards Collectors Bulletin. Vol. 36-3, p. 1809.
13. ^McLeod, John. (2005). 'Playing the Game: Canasta Relatives'. The Playing-Card, Vol. 34-2, p.141.
14. ^Wintle, Simon. Canasta at The World of Playing Cards. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
15. ^McLeod, John. Zwickern at pagat.com. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
16. ^'playing card joker collection'. dotpattern. 2003-06-07. Retrieved 2012-03-31.
17. ^'Guinness World Records'. February 14, 2018. Retrieved February 14, 2018.

External links[edit]

• Media related to Jokers (playing card) at Wikimedia Commons