Kems...Really Cheap (1 Viewer)

I have never bought a jumbo size deck in my life but have a new player who has a physiological eye disorder, so I started looking around tonight for any future games he plays in. Glad I waited until after dinner to see this.

Great catch! Thanks for posting it here
 
They come up like this on Amazon from time to time. I’ve bought these before for the same price and arrow black/gold bridge standard too.
 
i like jumbo personally but still secondary to having bridge vs poker size. $13 darn will have to put a price watch on it
 
markleteenie said:
What was the starting price? I see $18.24

Edit, hadn't refreshed, see info ITT.
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I actually paid $13.41 last night...just looked it up. I don’t know if it started lower than that.
250007
 
RocAFella1 said:
Received mine as well, perfectly flat and should stay flat in this CA weather.
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I always thought a standard 73 degree CA weather would be fine for chips and cards alike but I dont own one setup of kems that isn't warped with minimal usage and standard flat storing. The best I have is only slightly bowed but still playable.

I have a couple still in plastic brown box green/brown circle backs that I'm hesitant to even open simply because I don't want to risk it. For a $13 box of jumbo index I couldn't really care what they do.
 
But in all seriousness, I believe it is some combo of temperature and humidity that results in warpage or not. Knock on wood, but I have only had a handful of setups warp.
 
South eastern PA is pretty damn humid. I keep my cards in my finished basement with is a pretty consistent temp though humidity fluxuates from 15 to 65% winter to summer. Stored upside down with a cut card and dealer button on top and they have stayed flat.

I once left the Kem jokers out on the table for a few days and they bowed. The first set I had in 2002 bowed like crazy (I just stored them in the box and sometime left them on the table after a late night game). The second deck I got dated to 2003 never took a bow. They were highly used so I think that has something to do with it.

I’ve had Gemaco Superflex and their Star cards bow slightly after one use. I had Cartamundi Acetates take a slight bow but when I stored them like Kems they flattened out. I also had two decks of Dal Negros take a nice bow after a week in storage (normal in the box)

For the record I store ALL brands of cards like that...except for really cheap ones.
 
Old State, can you clarify your method on storing Kem cards "upside down?" Do you mean having card faces facing upwards or storing the whole box upside down or ?

I use various pressure/weight methods as well, not just with Kem's. But Kem's indeed are the most prone to warping.
 
StackemHigh said:
Old State, can you clarify your method on storing Kem cards "upside down?" Do you mean having card faces facing upwards or storing the whole box upside down or ?

I use various pressure/weight methods as well, not just with Kem's. But Kem's indeed are the most prone to warping.
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Yes, card faces up. The opposite way they would be in the box new. Most Kems seem to bow with the backs up...though I’ve seen them bow the other way as well.
The nice thing about the Kem cases are that they close and stay tight. It seems to push the dealer button down. Btw, I buy those cheap 5 packs of dealer button off Amazon just to keep on all my cards. I actually never use a dealer button in a game...unless we have a permanent dealer.
 
I played Friday night at a local casino that (obviously) uses KEMs. I started a new table, so they brought out a fresh setup. They came out in a black box that seemed to be the same material as the old brown boxes. The cards were stored upside down and they had two (what appeared to be) heavy, card-sized weights on top of the cards. One for each deck. I'm guessing that the manufacturer now provides these as part of the setups, but maybe not. Anyway, thought it was interesting that the casino was using essentially the same method @Old State describes above. Now if we can just get our hands on some of these "weights".
 
clapton77 said:
I played Friday night at a local casino that (obviously) uses KEMs. I started a new table, so they brought out a fresh setup. They came out in a black box that seemed to be the same material as the old brown boxes. The cards were stored upside down and they had two (what appeared to be) heavy, card-sized weights on top of the cards. One for each deck. I'm guessing that the manufacturer now provides these as part of the setups, but maybe not. Anyway, thought it was interesting that the casino was using essentially the same method @Old State describes above. Now if we can just get our hands on some of these "weights".
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Interesting. Maybe they read this forum:wow:

Were these “weights” being used as a “cut card” by any chance? Reason I ask is that the cut cards I used to see in casinos years ago were very thick plastic ... not the cheap blackjack style cut cards used today. The only place selling these I know of is Spenettis and they are calling them “bottom cards”. I do have a few that are yellow on one side and black on the other. Bought them at Gamblers General Store 15 years ago. The dealers at Borgata called them “shoes” (not to be confused with blackjack shoes) in the early -mid 2000’s. They now use cheap bridge sized cut cards.

I have not seen the black paper boxes yet...but then I haven’t been paying attention and haven’t played at a casino since the summer.
The fact that casinos “obviously” use Kem seems to be contested on this forum but it is very true. I’ve personally only seen non Kem cards used in a casino at a few tournaments (Gemaco Superflex).
 
They were not being used as cut cards and were much too thick for that purpose. They looked like a slab of marble and appeared quite heavy just from the way they were handled. Once the cards were taken out of the box, the weights were put back in the box and taken by the floor. I'll do some more investigating next time I'm there. This was the first time I noticed a black box as well. I know this casino got completely new set-ups around September '18, so this may be the norm now. I'll report back.
 

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