Thanks. Theyre smooth finish. I guess i got lucky at under 3 bucks a deck!
Smooth or embossed finishes are a player's-preference sort of thing. Some players like "air cushioning" or similar because the card surface behaves a lot like the surface of a golf ball - the dimples hold pockets of air that allow cards to glide easily over each other and the table. Some players think it's too slick and prefer a smooth deck.
Bit of trivia: take two decks that are equal in all ways except for the finish - one is smooth, the other is embossed - and you'll find that the smooth deck is a little firmer when you're shuffling it, despite the use of the same stock. My theory is that because modern card finishes (defined as the texture on the card's surface) are applied directly to the paper using steel rollers rather than the old method in which the texture was in the varnish applied on the card through the use of cloth rollers "painting" it on, the dimpling is now created by making physical impressions in the paper's surface, causing small breaks in a pattern that weakens the surface of the card just a little bit, enough to give them slightly better flexibility, while smooth cards, lacking any integrity issues on the card's surface, remain stiffer and more bend-resistant.
A good way to make this comparison yourself is to purchase some of the USPC-made Erdnase Bee decks sold originally by the Conjuring Arts Research Center (CARC) before they switched to using Expert Playing Card Co. (the two companies have the same ownership). Those decks were always made on casino-grade Bee stock and the vast majority of the designs were available in both smooth and embossed finishes. Their Bicycle Professional Series decks also used the same stock and choice of finishes. On Bee decks, they're called Cambric (textured) and Ivory (smooth), while on Bicycle decks they're called Air Cushion (textured) and either Ivory or Smooth.
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