Poker Cards

Ever since I started on Zynga's unhealthily addictive Facebook poker about 3 months back, I've been steadily gaining interest in the game of Texas Hold'em. Along with that quite naturally followed an interest in poker cards out there. I dug my old pack of Aladdins that I used 2 years back when my clique in uni got momentarily obsessed with bridge. But I've often heard that Bee cards were the best there was, so ever since I realized I liked poker, I've been on a borderline hunt for them. After a whole month of searching I finally found them in the 6th and 4th floors of Plaza Singapura.


From left to right are the various card packs I have... the Aladdins are the most comfortable to use probably because they've been used and thoroughly abused for many years. It has a great durable feel to it. The blue Angel cards I picked up along the way are made in Japan. As with all card packs I have it is linen-finished, but that does not seem to show in this as much as the other two red packs, which are both US-manufactured. The Angel cards therefore have a smoother feel to it. The last one is my latest addition, the premium edition of Bee cards. The linen or cross-hatch finish is most apparent in this pack, resulting in the highly-praised quality of these cards. You can see the difference in the close up below. They cannot compare to the Aladdins only because the Aladdins have been seasoned, and I think given time the Bees will do better than the Aladdins. I actually have one more pack of Bicycle cards, which WSOP has chosen for their brand of choice, but it's more of a show set and something I don't want to wear out. It's called the Tragic Royalty deck and I bought it because I love the halloweenish ghoulish gothic design of it.


Maybe I'll get the official WSOP deck next...


Here you can see the back designs of the 3 card decks close up, as well as a close up of the King of Spades, which I picked because it has the most color (well all kings have the most color but picked spades just because). Unlike the other two the Bee card's red is more maroon as compared to Aladdin's and Angel's bright crimson. And this must be a conscious decision on Bee's part because we know from the card back that they are well capable of printing crimson red, and crimson red helps in quickly identifying red suits in a jiffy. But maybe they just want to be different. The cloak of Aladdin's king is also slightly different from the other two, I wonder why since this is a their regular deck and not some premium thing.

I think I'll enjoy the Bees the best. Once they get seasoned. Any one with tips on that?