Do you remember what the backs looked like? What casino it was?

the back looked like the traditional Bee card, diamonds and all uniform, they had them in green, brown, blue, red, maybe other color not sure... Montreal Casino (Quebec, Canada).

A quick eBay search for 'casino cards' and 'casino card deck' returned a whole bunch of possibilities.

There were a few that weren't used in a casino, but were listed as 'casino quality', but there should be enough there to sate your appetite for used casino decks.

yes but I wanted to know the characteristic and material of those heavy card that really marked me! It might sound crazy but Ill never forget these cards, been doing a lot of research trying to get a hold of those cards.

Quote from: 18inch on October 19, 2013, 01:14:38 PM

Hello,
First post here would like to know something that i can't seem to figure out.

Couple of years ago they use to sell playing card at the casino for 1$ a deck. It was the cards that the casino play with, they were perforated with 1 hole for obvious reasons. But anyway, they were the best deck i ever played with!! All I can remember is that they were heavy compared to the ones you buy at a local shop, heavy and kinda thick, it wasn't extremely slippery like some card are, it was just perfect, slides on a table just enough, it had traction kinda. Now they don't sell them anymore and Im trying to find a similar card deck.

Any suggestion?
thanks

First, 18inch, let me welcome you to the Discourse.  When you have a moment, check out the "Introduce Yourself" board and create a new topic for yourself there.

I've often seen repackaged decks sold in dollar stores that were casino-used.  Casinos tend to get the heaviest stock for their cards, because they tend to get heavy use.  This was more so the case when casinos were still using paper cards at the poker tables rather than the plastic ones most casinos use now.  The plastic not only holds up to use more effectively, but they're more difficult to mark using common methods like crimping, nicking, etc. - they still aren't immune to daubs and similar "wipe-on" marking, but these are easily detected by the video cameras employed in the gaming rooms, so a smart person wouldn't be likely to try it.

Since the majority of playing cards in the country are made by the United States Playing Card Company (USPC), odds are that you were playing with a heavy-grade cardstock like Bee Casino or Aristocrat, depending on the age of the decks.  While it appears that Aristocrat stock has been phased out, there are a lot of new decks, both casino and non-casino, on the market today that use Bee Casino stock and not all of them come with the very slick "Magic Finish" coating that most custom decks have now.  The "traction" effect you referred to may have been due to the cards having been pre-handled by human hands before reaching your gaming table.  Interestingly enough, many casinos don't let customers handle paper cards anymore - it's very common now that the only games using paper decks are games where the dealer does all of the card handling, like blackjack and baccarat.

The biggest problem you're going to run into is that casinos have for the most part stopped drilling through decks with a drill press to cancel them - I haven't seen that technique used in over two decades.  (It's not to say it doesn't exist - just that I haven't seen it!)  What they do now is take a heavy black marker and draw a thick line along the four edges of the deck and use a band saw to slice off a corner while the deck is still in the box.  This results in a really jagged, uneven cut throughout the pack.

Curious fact: in Nevada, prison labor is used to re-sort the cards into decks and cancel them.  The prisoners are heavily supervised to insure that no uncanceled cards leave the work area.

Anyway, you want to find some great cards with the closest you're likely to find to casino handling.  There's a number of decks that fit the bill, well suited for poker.

The magician and card sharp Richard Turner had a special run of Bicycle decks in red and blue made to his specifications - they're called the Gold Seal Bicycles.  They look just like the old-style Bicycle decks in the classic box and use the same traditional coating but have a gold sticker on the back indicating that they're traditionally cut for the professional.  These were made using Bee Casino stock, and as the name states, they're traditionally cut just like most new casino decks are - this means they shuffle better out of the box, particularly for table shuffles.  A new, standard deck without a traditional cut is more easily table shuffled when face up!  Magic shops and finer card shops will carry these.

The Conjuring Arts Research Center (CARC, conjuringarts.org) has created a long series of decks in the Bee and Bicycle brands, all of which are also traditionally cut using Bee Casino stock and no Magic Finish.  The only decks they sell that aren't made this way are the Bee Erdnase 216 (custom stock and finish), the Bee Erdnase Acorn Back in black and silver (uses the slicker Magic Finish) and their newest brand, the Global Titans (manufactured in Shanghai by a different company).  They also have sold in the past a few other decks that didn't meet the description, but they were decks that weren't commissioned by CARC, simply sold through them as a retailer.

They also have two decks that don't have either the Bee or Bicycle brand on it that fit the bill: the "Ask Alexander" deck (which unfortunately for the poker player has a very obvious one-way back) and the "Expert at the Card Table" deck.  The last one comes in a green box that resembles the "pocket Bible" version of the book of the same title and has a white-bordered back with the Bee Diamond Back pattern on it in green.

The majority of the decks from CARC that I mentioned are available in both a textured finish (Cambric, Air Cushion) or a smooth finish (Ivory).  Ivory decks tend to be considerably stiffer and have different glide characteristics - you might actually like them, as they'll have more of that "traction" characteristic that you mentioned you like.

Thanks a lot! this was very informative and interesting! After lot of research so far I think the closest ones seems to be indeed the Bee Casino Quality card... I also came across 3 other deck: Aristocrats Casino Cards, the Bee Coterie 1902 Gold Edition which im not to sure what it differs from the original Bee Casino Quality and the Artisans deck which they say is made of FSC-certified papers, not quite sure if these type of paper would give a thick feeling to the cards.

thanks for all the response