Faded Spade 2.0 (1 Viewer)

[Highli99]

I have actually contemplated bringing dice chips and cheap paper cards to the next poker night to see if it phases my group at all.

Easy there Carl Lewis. There are still some lines not to cross.

 

[dmalhi1]

Easy there Carl Lewis. There are still some lines not to cross.

i just say this because i bring chips etc to the game but the guy whos house the game is at decided to buy a table. now a few people have actually tossed him a tip of 20-70 bucks just for the table yet no one does that for the guy who actually makes the game playable with the paulsons and nice cards etc. the guy whos house its at just allows people over and to use the table but he never provides food etc or anything, we all bring our own stuff..... i guess i'm just tilted because of the inconsiderate players including the table owner who should say something like, "hey guys, without this guy and his chips and equipment this game wouldn't work either, tip him also." or something like be the bigger man and say, "hey these guys gave me some coin, i'll split with ya for buying the chips etc." maybe i should just find a new group to play poker with. anyways, off-topic rant over!

 

[aetepi]

Just got mine today. They're still stiff like the 1.0, but the texture helps for shuffling- 1.0s would vacuum seal to each other when riffling. The box they come in has a divider tall enough to block them from sliding over, but the divider isn't firmly crimped so it will open up and makes the bottom card annoying to get out. As for the art style I liked it on the 1.0s so that's why I got 2.0s.
I'd say they're playable and I'd probably buy them again. But I'll have to see how the group feels about them on Saturday.

 

[v1pe]

Got the cards last night. First impressions are that these are a HUGE improvement over the original. The texture makes a massive difference and they feel thinner and more flexible to me as well. I have the bridge 2.0 FWIW.

I didn't get a chance to stack them up against the 1.0 deck to actually look at thickness, I'll try to do that at some point and take some photos. I'm not sure if the texture will make a difference in the height, they may appear artificially appearing thicker than they are due to the non-smooth nature of the new stock. Not sure.

Anyway, I'll definitely be getting these into play soon and feeling them out some more.

 

[Old State]

Got the cards last night. First impressions are that these are a HUGE improvement over the original. The texture makes a massive difference and they feel thinner and more flexible to me as well. I have the bridge 2.0 FWIW.

I didn't get a chance to stack them up against the 1.0 deck to actually look at thickness, I'll try to do that at some point and take some photos. I'm not sure if the texture will make a difference in the height, they may appear artificially appearing thicker than they are due to the non-smooth nature of the new stock. Not sure.

Anyway, I'll definitely be getting these into play soon and feeling them out some more.

Do you have a set of Gemaco Superflex to compare? SF were the stiffest card I knew of until the FS and are as stiff as I feel are comfortably usable.

 

[v1pe]

Do you have a set of Gemaco Superflex to compare? SF were the stiffest card I knew of until the FS and are as stiff as I feel are comfortably usable.

I don't, actually never touched a Gemaco set up so I'm not much help there. For reference, my current favorite set ups are KEMs and Desjgn CCs or Baroques (use the same card stock I think). The FS2.0 cards are a much different texture than both of those, but upon a few shuffles I didn't find them as slippery as Copags. The FS2.0 I think are definitely thicker than both KEM and Desjgn but not nearly as extreme as I recall the FS1.0 to be.

 

[v1pe]

I'll try to get some comparison pictures tonight.

 

[Old State]

Well on the bookends of the card flexibility scale Kem are one end and FS on the other. Difference with FS is that there is a lot of space between them and the next stiffest card.

 

[dmalhi1]

Do you have a set of Gemaco Superflex to compare? SF were the stiffest card I knew of until the FS and are as stiff as I feel are comfortably usable.

I'll pick up my 2.0 FS and compare to the Gemaco SF then post a quick review sometime this weekend.

 

[dmalhi1]

looks like @Hobbyphilic hooked it up...

 

[Old State]

looks like @Hobbyphilic hooked it up...

Doesn’t reference anything about feel

 

[DerberAlter]

Anyone from EU wants to buy with me? We could do a bulk order

 

[davin]

Faded spade 2.0 20% off code WPT

Comes out to $23.00 shipped

 

[TheBigTater]

If $2.30 maybe......

 

[davin]

If $2.30 maybe......

Are they that horrible ?

 

[TheBigTater]

Don't know about the 2.0's and not going to pay $23.00 to find out after getting burned on the 1.0's.

 

[davin]

Don't know about the 2.0's and not going to pay $23.00 to find out after getting burned on the 1.0's.

Can you explain what was so horrible about the 1.0

 

[TheBigTater]

Read back through the Faded Spade threads.

 

[dmalhi1]

So I got my set and had a chance to compare it to my Gemaco Superflex decks. My past experience with cards is literally, bicycle decks and an old deck of KEM’s I’ve had for 10 years plus a 1.0 faded spade set and a 4 colour faded spade set. I’ve only played with the Faded spade 1.0’s one time each and didn’t think they were bad cards, a bit stiff to shuffle but they look and play decently.

The gemacos are slightly thinner and flex easier than the faded spade 2.0’s. The texture of both is very similar but I find the faded spades still want to stick together, even if I tap one card again another it lifts the bottom card while the gemaco aren’t doing this. Feel wise, I prefer the gemacos but the faded spades are Still playable. The graphics on the faded spades do look cooler to me as they’re different and the 2.0 are a huge improvement over the 1.0’s.

Photo showing the ever so slight amount of difference in thickness between these two types of decks.



I have yet to try out copag or Desjgn cards. Thus, with the limited knowledge I have, I feel if I were only using these cards for hold em I would opt for the gemaco or the faded spade 2.0 every time. Now if I were playing some other social game where you hold your cards close to your chest etc. I would use basically any of the above mentioned sets over a set of bicycle cards up to and including the faded 1.0’s simply because they’ll last a lot longer.

 

[WedgeRock]

looks like @Hobbyphilic hooked it up..

@Hobbyphilic, I had KJ. Please ship the pot. I'll PM you the address

 

[Old State]

The gemacos are slightly thinner and flex easier than the faded spade 2.0’s.

That’s really the feedback I was looking for. Thanks. Gemaco Super Flex are the stiffest card I can personally stand and the Faded Spade 1.0s were significantly stiffer than that.

 

[dmalhi1]

That’s really the feedback I was looking for. Thanks. Gemaco Super Flex are the stiffest card I can personally stand and the Faded Spade 1.0s were significantly stiffer than that.

We are playing with them right now and everyone’s ok with em but I’m the one shuffling and I’m finding they’re slowly starting to break in. shuffling has become easier plus the cards are no longer sticking. my only qualm with them now is that they're still a bit too thick to easily shuffle "dealer" style, they are a bit slick and if you're not holding them right the middle of the stacks will shoot out towards the shuffler. In conclusion, I like them, f' the haters .

 

[Geedy]

Got these into game last night. I have not used the 1.0 so take that into account. Imo these are great!

I was copag for years then strictly KEM for the last 4+ Poker cut, bridge cut, casino used etc. Our local casino uses Angel and I always preferred the Kems.

I’ve included pics next to kem. They are more textured and feel more “grainy” then any other cards I have (Kems, Copags, cardimundi) I like that cards are not slick and shuffling dealing all night was fine even with stiff cards poker size. Didnt even noticed the thicker deck in hands.

Cards didn’t seem to break in much but came flat as bricks from supplier which is nice since warped cards absolutely tilts me....

They looked the exact same after 7-8 hours and probably 120 hands.

They are very stiff. I like that though ...some don’t... So take that into account of my review of these.

These snap back hard and very flat all night. And my guys are not easy on cards.

Will be again in action Saturday and will update after another 120+ hands.

Everyone loved the pips. Great size for peek...not to big your thumb covers it on the horizontal peek...and didn’t have one person ask all night (what’s the flop/suit) etc from corners of table.

Kems will be hard to find a game for the next little while.

 

[Geedy]

These went another 120+ hands last night. Didn’t seem to break in much more. Remained very stiff. No warping at all...We did notice the extreme stiffness made shuffling much harder this time around. We threw in some Kems for the last 40 minutes to see difference and they literally felt like butter after using FS for hours lol. Huge difference in handling.

If warped or bent cards is your tilt trigger I’d recommend FS. As these are straight as arrows after 250ish hands. If not I think they over compensated for 1.0s damage ratings and issues with very thick stiff cards.

 

[Old State]

These went another 120+ hands last night. Didn’t seem to break in much more. Remained very stiff. No warping at all...We did notice the extreme stiffness made shuffling much harder this time around. We threw in some Kems for the last 40 minutes to see difference and they literally felt like butter after using FS for hours lol. Huge difference in handling.

If warped or bent cards is your tilt trigger I’d recommend FS. As these are straight as arrows after 250ish hands. If not I think they over compensated for 1.0s damage ratings and issues with very thick stiff cards.

Having said you used Kems I was originally surprised you liked the FS at all in your first post.

If you like flexible cards there are probably a dozen manufacturers that make cards that handle very close to Kem without worrying about warping.

On the flexibility scale with a 1 being most flexible and a 10 being the stiffest, Kems are easily a 1, Copags 2, Desjgns 3, Fournier and Prestige a 5, DaVinci and many Modiano non acetates 4-7 and Gemaco Superflex would be a 9 or 10.
Faded Spade are off the charts at about an 18 with nothing in between them and the Gemaco’s. If you do a standard casino type shuffle the FS are exceedingly difficult to work with.

 

[v1pe]

I got my FS 2.0 into play on Friday. Although I liked them considerably more than FS 1.0, I still ended up swapping them out for KEMs. Primarily because of the stiffness of the cards. They are taxing on my hands to deal and I wasn't even shuffling. They exploded a few times while other players were shuffling them, which is a side effect of the card stiffness and the slick texture. The pre-USPC KEMs I put into play after a few hours were a breath of fresh air.

The texture of the FS 2.0 is quite nice actually, not as slippery as fresh COPAGs. The art is the best thing about them, I like the pip size as well. Unfortunately, just too stiff for me (although a huge improvement over FS 1.0) and I probably won't end up playing with them again.

 

[Carlavatky]

Noticed them being used on a televised poker tournament this weekend. I am guessing they are paying to get played but I've not heard of them in use at a live casino anywhere.

 

[Carlavatky]

I decided to take advantage of the special pricing and ordered a set of 2.0 poker size because, why not. They arrived this morning 4 days after I placed the order will put them in play this weekend but 1st impressions so far:

• No hard case like the Kem or Copag cards come with. The box is heavy duty cardboard but the devider tends to grab the bottom card so you can't always dump them out and get the 52nd card in your hand. I could close the box and give it a shake and they maintained separation.
• A noticeable plastic smell when I opened the package.
• The pip and court colors are vibrant and rich. The matte white is really nice as a background and prevents any glare. Index is big enough for the table to read but not so big as to cause problems on the peek.
• The back design is very good. Traditional in fact compared to the playing face.
• The deck is about 1 card thicker than my new deck of Kems when stacked side by side. About 6 cards thicker than a deck of Copag. Because I've used poker size plastic cards for years, I really don't notice this variation in my hand.
• The cards have a far more aggressive texture than either the Kems or Copags. I think this is where you'll hear them described as having an inclination to "stick together". I can tap the top card on the other decks and they will separate and several may even slide off the top. This doesn't happen nearly as readily with FS2.0 as the added coefficient of friction keeps them together more readily. Not sure if the texture will wear with play but I suspect it would only slightly do so.
• Pitching took some time to get used to. The top card doesn't push into my pitch hand as easily because of the texture. Again, just a different feel to master after years of pitching much slicker Kems.
• They lay vary flat. I subjected the jokers to some abuse that one would think might set a bend or warp and they survived without any noticeable issues. Someone would have to be very delibertate and aggressive to damage or mark the cards with a chip or a fingernail.
• Handle the Kems for 10 minutes and you'll think Copags are stiffer. The FS2.0 feel stiffer yet - the price you pay for the durability and flatness. After 15 minutes or so I got used to being a bit more delibertate with a riffle shuffle.

None of the above represents anything pro or con regarding the product. I suspect some folks will really like them, and others not so much, but I'm looking forward to putting them in play this weekend.

 

[Highli99]

I played with a set yesterday. I didn’t mind the stiffness at all but I also had a full time dealer. Shuffling was okay but definitley not as buttery as KEMs or Dejign.

I like the design a lot. Will keep them in the rotation for now...

 

[Old State]

• Handle the Kems for 10 minutes and you'll think Copags are stiffer. The FS2.0 feel stiffer yet - the price you pay for the durability and flatness. After 15 minutes or so I got used to being a bit more delibertate with a riffle shuffle..

Interesting observations but I doubt price has anything to do with the stiffness or flatness. Kem and Copags are probably the 1st and 2nd most flexible cards made. If you try several other manufacturers offering you may have a better perspective on just how stiff these cards are. They are in a league of their own.

If Kems and Copags were poblano and Anaheim peppers, FS’s would be a Carolina reaper