KEM - Don't understand the hype. (1 Viewer)

Poker Zombie said:
The difficulty I had wasn't softness/stiffness of the cards. The deck from the "other game" lacked the same slipperiness that I enjoy with most other plastic cards. After each riffle the cohesion when sliding the 2 halves together took greater effort. After playing in a 3rd parties game that allowed smoking at the table, I found his cards (Copags) to also be difficult to shuffle, which led me to believe that the Kem issue was cigarette tar, even though I have no idea if the Kem deck owner was a smoker.

Giving Kems a second chance, I bought a set-up, and they warped.
View attachment 141524

These too, are simply not as slick as I would like them to be, but I wonder if the warping causes increased friction (n) :thumbsdown:

The "oil from people hands seal the cards" theory may be as good as any right now, for why some warp and others don't. I can say that unless I was desperate for new cards I wouldn't buy USPC Kems for more than $6 a set-up.

I'm stocked well enough now that I could ditch the decks every time I play (like @kk405 - that's just baller-level hosting (y) :thumbsup:), and I still wouldn't run out of decks in the next couple of years, so I'm not desperate, and no more Kems for me. :cool:
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The older Kems were smoother and could feel like that, but what you are discribing sounds more like dirty card in my experience. My Cartamundi Acetates are very smooth and have the most friction when pushing the cards bac together.

The new Kems have rougher texture and actually shuffle smoother.
 
Anyone seen this on Kems before? Just bought some and the majority of them have a crackled finish on them. Heat maybe?

IMG_0668.JPG
 
Are the backs crackled? If so, uniformly across all cards?
 
BGinGA said:
Are the backs crackled? If so, uniformly across all cards?
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The decks are used and every card in a bad deck is completely uniform and on every card. It is so uniform that I wondered for a minute if it was by design.
5 of the 6 setups I opened have this problem. I may open the rest but I already filed for a return.
 
I can't even imagine what would cause that. See if it washes off. They look as if someone sprayed them. What's the date in the Ace of spades?

I ordered some new sealed acetate Dal Negro cards from Kardwell and they had a resin like coating in them. You could barely shuffle them. It all washed off though.

PS: beware of used a Kems. They are many times old casino cards that are usually bowed or really dirty
 
Old State said:
I can't even imagine what would cause that. See if it washes off. They look as if someone sprayed them. What's the date in the Ace of spades?

I ordered some new sealed acetate Dal Negro cards from Kardwell and they had a resin like coating in them. You could barely shuffle them. It all washed off though.

PS: beware of used a Kems. They are many times old casino cards that are usually bowed or really dirty
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Given this thread, the funny thing is that they are clean and not bowed :)
I’ll open some more and see what I see.
 
The seller issued a refund. Check out the cut on the back of that same 3. Also, I was wrong about the backs. The crackle is only on the face of each card.
It doesn't flake off and doesn't seem like a spray. Total mystery.

I had 29 setups with this deal. It's been forever since I used Kems. I have to say that they feel good other than the alligator skin!

IMG_0669.JPG

IMG_0670.JPG
 
Maybe they were stored in extreme cold or heat?

Where are they from? Casinos usually use branded or the circle back design (or something similar. The Arrows are "civilian" Kems.

Kems do feel good. Way better than any other card. I hadn't used them in a while either and when I picked up a deck after several years of not using them, I was surprised at just how much better (softer) they feel. They are noticeably quieter to shuffle as well. But it's a gamble to buy them as many will bow if not optimally stored .
 
There are all kinds of different backs. Many of the boxes have retail pricing still on them. No idea what their story is.
I assume extreme heat because that crackle effect looks melted and cooled but I really have no idea.
 
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upNdown said:
Much cooler, in my opinion. I’ve got red and blue cards coming out of my butt. I’d much rather brown, green, purple or whatever.
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It's doesn't have to be red and blue but I prefer darker subdued hues. Like deep burgundy, dark Forrest green, burnt orange etc which is pretty traditional for playing cards.

The purple and grey is what I went with. I also have green which is a bit loud for my taste. That said NOTHING compares to the faces of the cards. Simply the most beautiful and classy design ever printed on playing cards. Even the back designs are outstanding. Many rival or surpass Kem Arrows which were always my all time favorite back design.
 
BGinGA said:
Plenty easy to argue with that, as Copags aren't much better than KEM cards, imo - they are hard to shuffle, and the print wears off prematurely. Every deck of KEM cards I've owned (or have been owned by friends) has bowed, makes no difference when they were made. Some of the pre-USPC decks are the worst.

Bicycle Prestige -- top-tier performance for half the price of Copags -- now that is something hard to argue with. :) Not my favorite cards, but a fresh deck is right up there with the best. And you can't beat the price for value.
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completely agree with you.
I had a lot of cards of Modiano Crystal ($ 8 per deck). I really liked them.
but, once I managed to buy 10 decks of Fournier ($ 3 per deck). Except for the difference in thickness, they were almost identical to the feel. So why pay more, for the difference, which I almost can not catch?
 
Santa just brought me a KEM arrow black and gold poker size jumbo index setup. No comments on the durability, but they sure do shuffle and slide nicely! This is my first set of plastic cards, so I noticed right away that they are much thinner than my paper cards.
 
longflop said:
Santa just brought me a KEM arrow black and gold poker size jumbo index setup. No comments on the durability, but they sure do shuffle and slide nicely! This is my first set of plastic cards, so I noticed right away that they are much thinner than my paper cards.
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Santa done good!!!
 

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