Hello all,

I am going to be sourcing some custom printed playing cards from China and I want to make a modern design geared towards poker players.

My original thoughts were:

• Four color deck (although I found the thread from december discussing this and it has me doubting myself)
• Rank printed large for easy reading from end of table
• Easily readable index (Jumbo index or traditional ??)
• Modern innovative design

I found some designs online that seem close to what I am looking for (see attached) but would be interested to hear your input on what you think would make the perfect poker playing card.

-Jeff

JD,

From a design standpoint that is a clean, modern look, functional, and accessible for visually impaired.

However this deck presents an issue for game security. The bright and broader color band along a good part of the card edge, and the very visible face make the deck accessible, but also makes it vulnerable to the unscrupulous.

Even casual inadvertent glances will more likely pick up information from neighboring hands with this kind of design.

A four color option would further make the deck vulnerable to cheaters.

You might be able to limit vulnerability by reducing contrast, both with background and between your suit colors. Washed out grey and pink, for instance, might give you that clean modern feel while reducing the ability to readily determine rank and suit with a flash. Certainly that would help with the face. The corner index could preserve the bright color as long as it is small.

Maybe a white border at the edges would help?

My target for this type of deck is friendly home games. In my games, when someone sees a card they announce it to the table and it is shown to everyone. If they see just the color, they say "I caught a flash of the card, I know it is red"

But in general we all are pretty good about protecting our hands and dealing without flashing. When new players join we teach them how to properly look at their cards.

We have more of an issue with a few of the older players that have issues seeing the flop. If they draw a seat at the end of the table they are often standing up to read the flop.

I've played a lot online so the four color deck just seems logical to me. The two color deck seems to be a holdover from a time when the technology/costs influenced this choice. Not sure it was originally a choice based on deck security. Why not have a single color if security is the reasoning?

Actually, one color would be more secure. But two is traditional.

Maybe the four color decks are great after some practice, but we had a hard time when we first tried them. The reds and greens looked too much alike in low light, which is so common in home games.

I also think a white border would be better than having the rank printed right along the edge. I wonder if you can look at the side of the deck and get an idea about what the value of the next card is.

Otherwise, it's a pretty cool design.

Hmmmm...that is something I hadn't thought about (never tried a four color deck in real life) Maybe there would be some shades that are better than others. Might have to do a little testing.

I'll definitely avoid colors along the edge (hadn't thought of that either).

But I am convinced that the traditional design can be improved upon.

Thanks for the great input.

Just my personal opinions here.

I love a 4 color deck. The argument that the green and red look to similar is invalid. Even if one is colorblind, like my friend, you can still tell the suit by the shape. Many people mistake one suit for another due to the fact that there are only 2 colors. The idea of the 4 color is simply easier to more quickly identify a hand. It work very well but some people are just opposed to change, therfore they hate the deck.

The deck design you have posted looks very modern and stylish, however I fully agree with StevieG. My gut reaction was that it might prove impossible to protect hole cards.

I bought a jumbo index deck for home games to help my friend who is legally blind. It helped him but the other regs hated it.

I commend your efforts.

This design is not my cup of tea, but my first thought was that the up cards in stud games would take up too much real estate. I've played with a magnum-index deck and players were misreading the sixes and nines. +1 to using a white border.

Oh, my bad. I meant green and blue looked the same.

Gee, I hope someone says this is valid.

I give you 82% validity on that statement. Which is pretty good, it is like pair over pair!

But I see his point. You may have some trouble distinguishing green and blue, but it is even harder to distinguish black from black.

I'm hesitating on the 4 colors, as it can obviously be off putting for some people.

With the above designs I worry a little about them not being symmetric. I see dealers having to turn cards around after dealing the flop, players turning cards around in their hands. So I am thinking of something along the lines of the image below. I have a designer friend trying to make something professional out of this.

I think what threw us was that clubs looked red, and they would normally be a black card. I'm not sure though. It was a problem we did not overly analyze. We just switched out decks. If we had stuck with it, we would have probably stopped looking for colors in suboptimal light and just studied the shapes.

I imagine over time the two color decks will go the way of laptops and smart phones.

By that I mean at about the same time.

But I do like the design you have there. The absence of face cards actually adds to security, by the way.

With all the feedback received, I am working with a designer on the card design. Leaning towards something like this:


Still debating the 2 vs 4 colors...

What do you think?

-Jeff

Nice. When is the kickstarter campaign?

At the moment, there is no plan for a Kickstarter campaign. I will likely be placing an order myself for 500 decks from a manufacturer in China as soon as I get the design finalized.

100% Plastic, Poker Size, with my website's logo on the back and a custom printed tuck box.

So they will be used for giveaways, promotions, and I may also try to sell some. We'll see.

Some small adjustments to the previous design:

I'm all ready to order and it is Chinese New Year! They are on vacation until Feb 16th!

6's and 9's ??? Ick -- unless you have some clever idea for that problem.

I think there might be a problem with 2 and 5 as well, depending on font and everyone's eyesight.

This is the current design for the 6s:

have to be honest I liked the original (below) better - just needed a black or red border around the edge so you can't see the white / red bits of the large text!

I like this too from a design stand point, but I really wanted the cards to be symmetrical. With that design I can see someone dealing the flop and then turning one or two cards around so they are facing the right direction. And by default they will be upside down for half the table. I think it will get annoying after a while.

So the order is in for 500 decks. I've made the wire transfer. They are committing to a delivery in France by March 1st. Here is the card back and tuck box design if you are interested:

Cards have been printed (100% plastic). Can't wait to have them in hand.

They look great. It will be interesting to see how they are reviewed by players in action.

I will be curious as well. Especially since we will likely be switching between a traditional deck and one of these every hand as we alternate between 2 decks I only have the black card backs.

If they are popular I will probably make another print run of orange card backs so we can use only Blind Valet cards. We'll see.

-Jeff

What does a batch of 500 cost?

Roughly the same as a 2005 Ford Taurus