I received the NTP Black Jack Rose and Dal Negro Texas Hold'Em a few days ago, I took the time to play with them, dribble them (dribbling is a very basic cardistry move that allows you to do the famous Anaconda Dribble, and is THE best move to do when feeling the stock quality of a deck imo), shuffle them, riffle them etc.
Here is a comparison between those two decks plus Copag & Fournier because why not. I'll give you my personnal thoughts for those interested even tho I'm nobody to judge the cards.
Please note that I'm french and I'll write this comparison without any translations tools nor AI, sorry in advance for the english mistakes and bad choices of words, let's start :
As you can tell from this image, only Copag uses "Cherry Red" ink while all the others uses a darker "Casino Red" ink. Also, only Copag uses a full white skin tone on the faces, I personally am not a big fan of that, I think that the faces looks unhealthy when they're full white.
You can also tell from this image the different font & sizes of the faces, I am not a big fan of the smaller Dal Negro font, I think that when you buy a Jumbo Index deck for playing Poker, you want a big font. But once again that's only my personnal thought.
Dal Negro also has the darker cream center panel, which is something I like, all the others have a clearer cream panel with Copag having by far the whitest one. Please note that in real life they don't look as white as in the picture as I took the photo under great lightning.
Let's have a closer look at the back designs now :
I'm sorry I don't have a Red Fournier to have the best comparison possible.
Special mention to Dal Negro for having a thinner white border than all the other decks, I think it looks a bit more classy and premium.
NTP has by far my favorite back design here, I think the design is amazing and the red ink is more vibrant than the other decks.
Now, let's look at the cards with full lighting and extremely zoomed to see the texture :
As you can tell from this test, only the italian brands reflect a different texture, with Dal Negro having the most different one, while NTP looks like it's reflecting diamonds. Fournier and Copag looks very similar.
Let's look at the special cards now :
Apart from the Ace of Spade, the italian and Spanish brands have another card with something written on them, which is something I personally hate, I don't really get why they don't put this on the Ace of Spade.
Copag doesn't have any special cards and I think that's great.
Let's look at bonus cards and jokers :
Only Copag and Dal Negro have a Card Ranking card, shoutout to Dal Negro for having by far the coolest one, showing the cards with Jumbo Index and Cream Center Panel, looks amazing.
I always liked Card Ranking cards as I used them as a Cut Card before buying a real Cut Card.
Let's look at the other side of the boxes :
I really like NTP's square hole showing the back of the cards, looks great. But on the other side NTP is the only box that doesn't have a "U shaped" hole at the top to open the box easily, I feel like I'm destroying the box everytime I open it.
Let's look at the quality control of the stock now :
I'll only show Dal Negro because all the other decks have a really great quality control, with nice cuts, no visible default whatsoever. As you can tell from the picture above, Dal Negro has an edge that is poorly cut, leaving visible traces of the cut.
Now I'll give my overall thought and opinion about the feeling in hands of the decks, something that can't be shown in pictures but I'll try my best to describe it :
-NTP Black Jack Rose : BY FAR the best stock here, in hands you feel that every single card has the same dimensions, down to the last nanometer, something I've never felt with any other decks. When dribbling the cards you can really feel each and every card dropping from your hand, their great flexibility, quality etc. It is the best PVC stock I've ever felt and it's not even close.
-Dal Negro Texas Hold'Em : By far the worst stock here. When laying the four decks side by side, Dal Negro is the only deck that has a card that can go above the other decks, feeling like you have 55 cards instaed of 54, meaning it's the thicker stock here. When dribbling the cards I can feel multiple cards dropping of my hands at the same time, instaed of only one, which is something that you don't want, and also is a horrible feeling. As you saw in the pictures it also has the lowest quality control. In my opinion the worst deck 4 compared here.
-Fournier Titanium Series : Great stock, very good balance overall, a bit less flexible than NTP, when dribbling the cards the deck feels good. I can tell why so many of you guys here love Fournier. Sadly, when compared to NTP the choice between the two isn't close. Still a great deck tho.
-Copag Texas Hold'Em : The stiffer stock here, when dribbling the cards I can feel that they're less flexible, which is something you can like, it depends on what you're looking for. Stiff decks adds snappiness I guess. This deck also feel good and is very close to the Fournier, if you hesitate between Copag and Fournier, you should make your choice on the design here, almost the same stock in hands with Copag being a bit more stiff.
Conclusion : Between those 4 decks, the one I'll chose here without any hesitation is the NTP Black Jack Rose. The faces are the closest to the Cartamundi Belgium faces (the best ever imo). With the font being very close to the rectangle panel in the center. Best back design imo, best stock aswell. The only thing I don't like about this deck is the Ace of Heart with the tiny "92A" written at the bottom. Apart from that and the Ace of Spade that looks fat and too wide, this deck is a 10/10. The cheap price makes it an even bigger no brainer choice than it already was.
