How often do you break out a fresh deck of cards for your game? (1 Viewer)

ZittyTitty

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Hey yall Im wondering how often in general you guys will use a fresh deck of cards for your games. For the games I play one fresh deck lasts maybe 3 full games, but it may be due to people bending or flexing the cards we use. It might also be because the card stock is very thin, Ive been using blue ribbons which I've heard is the same thickness as BEE playing cards.
 
I host probably only 5 or 6 times per year, been doing it for about 15 years. I think I've only retired one setup in that time. But that is primarily because I like trying out numerous different brands of cards for variety. Although my players don't care less what cards we use. They also don't bend or mark cards, so I guess I'm lucky.
 
Once I was introduced to Copag, my paper decks went out the window. Now I've got some other plastic alternates, and I host about 4-5 times a year and haven't retired any of those yet.
 
My favorite deck is a set of Modiano 4 pip standard size with small white daisy's on the backs with geometrics around them. They must have seen a good 20 or so games on a mix of surfaces and none of them a quality table. the faces are worn but very legible and they are very playable except they are difficult to shuffle and would be annoying for any experienced players to use. I tried several easy methods to clean them but nothing made a difference.

I just experimented putting this old Modiano deck through my ultrasonic. After cleaning and wiping I decided a few things. 1- I can probably coax another couple of house games out of these cards again, the result was a massive improvement in feel closer to new again. 2-Next time I will give them away and open a new deck. Why? I had to run ~10 cards and wipe each card with a cloth after ~20 seconds run and then run again for ~20 seconds to get the card clean then rinse in the sink. I tried washing this same deck in the sink only with no success. I used tap water at 42 celcius with approx 5 tablespoons of course salt and ample dish soap in a 6L Ultrasonic. This is the same recipe I have used on poker chips with great success. I don't mind cleaning chips but for some reason this just seemed tedious for cards.
 
I haven't had to retire a Copag setup yet after several years at 6-8 games per year. Haven't used them in a while because I've been trying out Bicycle Prestiges and Modianos and other brands.

One player creased a Bicycle Prestige card but I was able to rescue it using an iron that was being used for, well, ironing, and I pressed the creased card after the iron had cooled down most of the way. It got it back to 99% flat. If someone wasn't looking for it, they wouldn't be able to tell. I'd not consider it marked, but I haven't used that deck since anyway.
 
Once a month or so (4-6 games/month). Usually just because I'm a degen and bought more cards.
 
I don't host often at all and I basically collect playing cards (or that's the excuse I use whenever I buy new decks) so I don't mind opening a fresh deck for every game, I actually prefer it. Paper only and it'll be whatever I feel like that day; all my decks are either standard index or jumbo index, no custom courts, no funky designs that make things harder to read. Plain bees and uncancelled casino decks are personal favourites along with some other things like Jerry's Nugget reprints and Cherry casino.
 
I use only plastic decks (Copag, Modiano Platinum Acetate) and we use fresh decks after 4-5 games, but then again, we have all chipped in to buy a case of cards (12 setups) at a time. So a case lasts about a year or so. It's probably overkill, but for a $10/$20 limit game, the cost of a new setup every 4-5 games is minimal.
 
I have 6 decks that are in the rotation. Copag, DesJgn and Bicycle Prestige in heavy rotation, A different deck of DesJgn, Modiano, and a Piatnik/Kem setup in lighter rotation.

The heavy rotation decks get 1/4 the cards swapped out at random after every game with a backup deck. If a card gets damaged it is permanently removed, but because of the swap-out schedule, you cannot identify more/less wear between the new cards and the older cards.

I've had about 2-3 dozen cards damaged since 2005 (and the rate dropped massively after I cut one particular player from my invite list). I've only retired 3 decks.
 
I rotate my decks so each get used about 3 sessions a year, I also kept a backup set for each setup in my collection in case of card replacement

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