So, in common with others these days, my latest Theory11 deck is made in China. Turns out the only thing I don't prefer about it is that the cards are stiff to spring - and boy do they smell...
They Faro better than the USPCC White Edition I got last month, fan evenly, don't feel as though the card edges being an exfoliant is a design feature and even (false) shuffle cleanly. But boy do they smell... 😬
I'm a big fan of this Mosaic Mantis deck.
Printed by WJPC.
Sorry about that... so we know that eight out Faro shuffles returns a 52 card deck to its original order (and 52 in Faro shuffles does the same), and you may know that a deck of 64 cards takes six out shuffles to return to its original order (It's best to use thinner cards. I tried this by taking a deck of blue Elite Edition bikes and adding the court cards from a red deck; ribbon spreading the plumper deck face down between individual shuffles makes for some interesting patterns).
But I stumbled upon another fact, completely by accident... You see I replace the top and bottom cards with jokers or advertisement cards when I'm running through Faro shuffle practise (failing to do so makes the top and bottom cards a bit sticky - eww). And I wondered what might happen if I included all four extra cards to further protect the precious 52. After a few attempts I had the answer...
I can't do the math(s), indeed it stumped AI for a minute - expand my screenshot image, but it turns out that it takes 20 out Faro shuffles to return a deck of 56 cards to whatever NDO it started with. My apologies if this is widely known already.
I thought this info might be useful for those doing extended Faro practise - especially if they wanted to preserve the condition of the most important* cards in the deck.
Or perhaps I just need to get out more...? 🤔
*YMMV
After going down the well-worn path of buying standard rider backs, then the Penguin Magic Elite Edition decks I watched a recent YouTube video about the Gold Standards and ordered a couple of decks. My first impressions matched those of Derek Grimes - DisfunkshinalReviews - who commented on the poor reproduction on the back of the tuck box. And, wow, is that the baggiest cellophane ever?
Anyway, the Ohio deck on its Bee stock feels like it will be quite a job to break in, but I’m hopeful it will mean that they will last a while too. They do seem to trip over their rough edges when I pick up a flipped ribbon spread - maybe I’ve been spoiled with decks with a sharper cut just lately.
My Elite Edition decks don’t fan as predictably as they once did - and they haven’t had a ton of use. The jury is still out too on the thin crushed Experts Playing Card rider backs I got the other day - especially as there are only 54 cards in an already skinny deck. The Richard Turner deck has that special ad card, of course, and - my favourite gaff - a blank face card.
More breaking in to do, I reckon…
A rather eclectic collection of playing cards to model the fifteen-card rack from TCC. Anyway, I had a discount code so…
This grizzled cyclist was recently gifted two Bicycle League Back decks shortly before a brief cycling trip to a part of England called North Yorkshire. So, for anyone not aware, I thought I‘d share a little of the history behind the ‘Winged Wheel’ that, nearly a century and a half after its introduction, can still be found on historic buildings in the UK and on the back of some playing cards…
The UK’s Bicycle Touring Club (swiftly renamed the Cyclists’ Touring Club so as not to discriminate against tricyclists) was formed in 1878. Two years later in the USA the League of American Wheelmen was founded. (It was subsequently renamed the League of American Bicyclists so as not to discriminate against women - presumably they weren’t too fussy about tricyclists.)
In 1885, of course, the United States Printing Company gave us Bicycle Playing Cards [edit: see TheCongressGuy’s comment re the Russell and Morgan Printing Company]. The late nineteenth century boom in cycling brought the name of arguably the most famous playing card brand together with design elements from surely the most liberating form of transport.
Although the CTC (now rebranded as Cycling UK) came before the League it seems likely that the UK design for the Winged Wheel was ‘borrowed‘ from the design of the US emblem. The history - like my first pic for this post - is a little fuzzy here.
In the UK cast iron plates bearing the winged wheel logo can still be found on historic buildings once deemed worthy of cyclists’ patronage (the first photograph is a view from outside a small hotel; the second a former bike shop).
Sadly, a web site - wingedwheel.info - appears now to be defunct, but here are a few links for your reading pleasure…
https://www.cyclinguk.org/article/history-winged-wheel
https://www.reddit.com/r/playingcards/comments/1oqc49d/an_underrated_gem_imo/
No, I’m not a completionist, really - I have only one T11 Monarch, one Jerry’s Nugget and a couple of Cherry Casino decks, for instance. And I never thought when I got in to magic tricks, cardistry then card collecting, that I would be drawn to such abstract designs. But I recently sourced the third and last offering in the series: Ocean.
I suppose it helps that the decks are of a finite number; the CardCutz web site states, “… we are no longer retailing products…”, and with the Oblique deck rounding off my little collection from the Australian producer I’m nicely done, thank you.
The CardCutz Summer 2021 series are on crushed USPCC stock and handle very nicely Indeed, although my Ocean deck came with the dreaded ‘click’. It seems I am a sucker for the two-way fans these cards can give (I’ve included the Jungle and Mountain thumb fans in earlier posts, so just the Ocean deck is shown fanned here).
Next up, some time, is the third in the RunIt Decks Creation series (after Inception and Transition). Then that’s it, surely…? 🤔
I was looking for something else in The Works when I chanced upon this craft box. At £4 I thought it was worth a punt. I gather it’s meant to be painted (perhaps for our purposes to match an existing colour scheme or the theme of the decks stored in there, maybe). Anyway, just a thought…
I really only wanted the CardCutz Summer 2021 Jungle deck, so to qualify for free postage I threw in a Copag Neo, but being the most affordable Cartamundi deck with the B9 finish the price of the two was still below the £20 minimum order value. So I caved in and bought the Neo trio (v2).
The Jungle deck fans beautifully in either hand, but the Neo deck I opened was a little bland. Hey ho. They handle nicely though 👍🏻
A deck that shows the position of the cards during its eight out Faro shuffles.
Note: by the third photograph the deck is in its new, new deck order and is arranged in A-K, Spades, Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds.
Posted in part to show the intermediate positions displayed in this excellent video on Instagram:
I do like a thin crushed stock - I have a few of Penguin Magic’s Elite Edition rider back decks as well as others - and thought I’d try another thin crushed stock; I received a deck this week.
Both types of crushed decks sound as though half the cards are missing when the tuck case is shaken and I’m wondering if - given that the cards are so loosely packed inside the case - storing them upright has contributed to this new deck being so warped.
I have a card clip, so it’s not the end of the world - and breaking the deck in may make the problem go away - but in any case I reckon I’ll be storing them flat from now on…
I had already picked up the black version of this deck and added the red to the cart of a subsequent order as I really rated the handling of the cards.
The red is looking promising but, curiously, both decks have just 55 cards. 54 I've seen (and a cheapskate 51) or more commonly 56, but this is a first for me. Oh, and check out the new deck order. No kissing kings in sight.
Recommended if, like me, you favour a thin crushed, traditionally cut deck with a blank face card 👍
*Ok, technically it’s the last day of a long, tiring, frustrating week, made that little bit better by picking up a few long-fancied decks over the last few days. I’m certainly not a completionist, but if that promised third deck in the Creation series ever pops up I’ll be snaffling one.
(So no more Missing, Fontaine and Maddison decks for me, for instance. The mean average is less than £7.50 for precisely one example I have from each of those three players.)
I don’t plan to buy any more of the Roots playing cards, but I already have the Teak in black and it handles really well. It’s a good price. The Descendents deck is a spare picked up in a flash sale. That’ll have to do for a while now…
I rounded off my collection of Tally-Ho decks with the Slate Edition by Kings Wild Project. As a bonus the deck included a double backer and a blank face card. Yay! So far so good.
But let me tell you I’m not too wild about that King of Clubs - or the King of Spades. Part of the design of both cards is visible in my fairly tight right hand thumb fan. I’m disappointed.
What’s the point of including a blank face card if your court cards are visible in a ‘blank fan’? 🤷♂️
Recently I’ve been picking up decks that include a blank face card (a few Chris Ramsay decks, a signature X deck from Alex Pandreas amongst others) because I’m playing with a lengthy routine that requires such a gaff at the beginning. And although I do have a stash of Bicycle double blank cards I prefer to have a blank face card with that deck’s matching back.
So I’ve been busying myself with the nail polish and so far I’ve gaffed my Sirius B v4 and my Fontaine Guess Cycling decks. (Some ad face cards are borderless and that makes it tricky to avoid introducing moisture to the edges of the card.)
Now I’m eyeing up my Artisans and a duplicate deck of Orbit Tally-Ho playing cards (with the extra eight of spades) both of which come with a double backer gaff.
It‘s not just me, is it? Is it…?
Just an update on my Tally-Ho collection I posted about a while back. I wanted a ninth deck to round off a temporary display of Tally-Ho decks. I thought the gaff deck didn’t count…
… So somehow I missed the Slate edition when it came out last year - and I hadn’t seen it on here. I now have the deck, obviously, although I have yet to open it (I will, I will).
Looks all right 👍🏻
Shamelessly borrowing an idea - from u/ThePottyMouth - what do these playing cards have in common? And what characteristic separates each row from the others…? 🤔
A recent post on here made me think about the way I collect playing cards; themes, card stocks etc, and just as importantly why I don’t buy particular cards…
I’ve had a Fontaine deck in my basket for a while, a Rise deck by those brothers and the v2 of the Slow Hands deck (I don‘t Care for the v1) from Kier Gomes. They’re still sitting there. And I’ve avoided the NOC decks, anything by Dan and Dave, Missing, Anyone, David Blaine and a bunch of the other usual suspects. I’ve just got the two Cherry Casino decks and only one Theory11 Monarchs deck.
But recently I’ve picked up a Daniel Madison deck, handful of Chris Ramsay decks and, today, an Alex Pandrea deck (the cards by the latter two both having blank gaffs - another rabbit hole I’m struggling to climb out of). Basically, I don’t want to get drawn in to some series and find myself being a completionist all over again (er, like I kind of did with my Tally-Ho collection). Things are bad enough as it is.
I think I can limit myself to those I’ve already bought that were made for the three gentlemen I‘ve mentioned above (the Mad deck doesn’t like to Faro and the X deck feels decidedly cheap), and I already have a fair number of decks bought because of their association with other cardists and magicians.
So a quick(ish) run through of this particular theme, starting with the Descendents playing cards by Card Perfect Magician. I enjoy the energy of his videos so I wanted to get his deck - and to try out some of the flourishes he demonstrates online. Then the floodgates opened on decks associated with personalities as shown in my second photo. On the top row there’s one from another YouTube magician, however, I picked up the Deceptive Arts deck (they’re from a UK magician) because it looked like they were on Superlux stock. The Grid was another Cartamundi deck designed by Luke Wadey (I like his Mono-Xero decks), the middle row by content creators on YouTube and the bottom row were purchases heavily influenced by being on the range of all three Cartamundi stock as much as by who put out the decks.
Really, I suppose I’m just wondering if others buy their cards because of an association with the individual/group that brought them out - or do they avoid buying them because of such an association.
Sorry for the ramble. Just a thought…
I realise there is some antipathy towards the creator of this deck, but I picked these cards up at a price I couldn’t refuse. Sorry, I was curious about them. I’m now wondering where they were printed. Does anybody know, please?
They handle well enough, although they do have a plasticky feel to them, but they are not at all happy when I try to Faro shuffle them.
I have modified my technique and sometimes they will fall obligingly in to place. Other times they are like trying to put a cat in a basket on the second trip to the vet.
Thanks in advance if you know the manufacturer 👍🏻
My favourite Cartamundi deck in the Superlux stock with the B9 finish. Sublime.
(PS if you get the itch maybe check TrustPilot before ordering from certain online suppliers...)