Best Playing Cards

What's everyone's opinion on who makes the best playing cards? I want a set or two of really good, firm cards to use for home games when a couple friends get together and play. Who makes the best and what is a general price to have in a good set of cards.

Updated Feb 2018:

Here are some of the suggestions from members:

Copag - Recommended by most players! Made from 100% PVC plastic, the life expectancy of Copags is 20-50x longer than paper playing cards.
Modiano Cristallo - Modiano cards are 100% plastic, but also textured for better handling.
KEM - Made with 100% cellulose acetate plastic for better flexibility and shape retention.
Gemaco - Paper or plastic stock. A casino standard (just ask Phil Ivey).
NTP - Made by the Italian company Dal Negro, NTP cards are 100% PVC plastic and textured.
DA VINCI - Made in Italy, Da Vinci cards are 100% plastic.
Bicycle- Plastic coated paper cards made by the US Playing Card Company. An economical choice for an informal poker game.
Bee - Another low-cost home-game standard, these cards by the US Playing Card Company are also plastic coated paper.
Fournier - Manufactured in Vitorio, Spain, and now owned by the US Playing Card Company, these cards are 100% plastic.

Hello, believe that one of the best is a COPAG company.

My local poker club has been using Modiano Cristallo cards for 4-5 years now. Larger cards with larger pips so that the older players can easily read their hands and the board. They come in 8 different deck colors.

When my friends are going to play we do not need expensive cards for the game, we just take not expensive cards of 3-4 decks for a replacement, why buy expensive ones?

I grew up in the 50s playing with Bicycle cards....I still use them at home.

IF it is not the best, it is among the best. They cost about $ 7

Best cards are made in Belgium i think.

Good quality 100% plastic ones are generally the way to go - I like Copags but KEM and lots of other brands do good ones too.

Keep in mind though that even 100% plastic cards won't last forever. Poker cards are meant to be replaced over time as they get worn / bent / hard to shuffle.

I've had a lot of different brands over the years: Kem, Bicycle, Gemaco, Copag, Fournier and others. I currently have 4 decks in rotation. Most brands that make 100% plastic cards are good but the cheaper ones do wear out faster. My favourite are Copag with Fournier in a close second.

The best playing card maker is the one which makes me the most money.

Do not buy any set of cards that are 'normal' or 'magic trick' cards. Normal cards are stiff (difficult to bend-shuffle and not destroy) as well as unwaxed (so sliding the cards to players across the felt won't work properly unless you are very, very good at aiming). Magic trick cards are the complete opposite of poker cards; they are built with specifically grippable cardboard on the back to enable easy grip with slight touch of fingers for sleigh of hand tricks (and actually these are the decks used for cheat-shuffling in poker) but real proper poker decks have very slippery wax-covered PLASTIC cards (they are plastic layered on either side and card on the inside of the transparent protective layers). The waxing is to make bend-shuffling etc not creases or damage them at all as well as enable easy gliding across felt.

I like Copag.

Copag is my favorite brand,Today we have many varieties of very good brands in the market

RidersFan said:

My favourite are Copag with Fournier in a close second.

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I was given a few Fournier decks in a promotion, and I love them. I also have a bunch of Copags that are easily right up there. I think the Copags are a bit cheaper, and I like their double deck case they come in. You can't go wrong with either of these brands, in my experience.

I will say that a couple of my older copags haven't handled their age so well. When I went to find a set for my son (so I didn't have to worry about him taking them to school and losing them), the border on the face cards had faded and almost bled through the back of the deck. It's not really noticeable unless you hold them up to the light. But, they were well past the point where they would be used in a game, and it was probably related to sitting in a hot garage for months. I suppose it could happen to any.

bicycle cards are the standard in the industry

Copag 139 !

TheNutz4You said:

bicycle cards are the standard in the industry

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those cards are a three day old ham sandwich compared to the filet mignon of Copag

I think floor plastic cards more suited to the game

I have two decks of Jack Daniel Old #7 cards that are the best. Don't know who made them though.

Type of Cards

I think that bicycle cards are the best kind of cards and i got a 4 pack so that they will last a while and each pack is durable

FlopYourNuts said:

I think that bicycle cards are the best kind of cards and i got a 4 pack so that they will last a while and each pack is durable

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I doubt anyone is saying they are unusable, but they have flaws which make them far from the best. Depending on your stakes and the group you play with, those issues might not be major concerns.

The flaws are related to the fact that they are relatively easy to mark, crimp, and damage in ways that are hard to avoid when dealing with some players. I have played with some players where a deck of bicycle cards barely lasted half an hour before it was looking pretty sorry. Wet drinks near or on the table soften edges. Cards get folded nearly in half by players checking their hands and during shuffles. It is hard, if not impossible, to distinguish the marks from carelessness and those from people attempting to cheat. In the end, it doesn't matter how that corner of the card got wet and a little dented, because now that it is I can know where the card is without too much effort.

Edit: Since the mid 2000s outside of state run or casino card rooms, I have never seen a paper deck in games higher than 50 cent blinds. And, the state run games rotate new decks in fairly often and immediately when a card defect is noted. Before then, the cheaper decks were the only ones I used, but all those games were small home games or college dorm and fraternity games.

vinnie said:

I will say that a couple of my older copags haven't handled their age so well. When I went to find a set for my son (so I didn't have to worry about him taking them to school and losing them), the border on the face cards had faded and almost bled through the back of the deck. It's not really noticeable unless you hold them up to the light. But, they were well past the point where they would be used in a game, and it was probably related to sitting in a hot garage for months. I suppose it could happen to any.

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Yep, I've used Copags at work for over 10 years, and the print etc. definitely fades over time. I've found it's more so from repeated use rather than time and generally I've found that by the time they've started to fade, they're probably not shuffling too well either and it's time to replace them anyway.

OzExorcist said:

Yep, I've used Copags at work for over 10 years, and the print etc. definitely fades over time. I've found it's more so from repeated use rather than time and generally I've found that by the time they've started to fade, they're probably not shuffling too well either and it's time to replace them anyway.

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Well, these definitely got use. We had a live tournament/cash game every Friday night with 18-30 players that would run until morning. I bought a set for this game, and it was used with a couple other sets of Copags they had. After almost a year, it was replaced with a new set and I got to take it home. So, it saw some serious use and abuse. It wasn't used 100% of the time, but each table usually had 2 decks in rotation and there weren't a whole lot of extra sets laying about.

I really don't care so much about that.
If it is a good card, anything for me is ok.