Card Regulations 101
by Alex J. Coyne © Gifts for Card Players
So, just what is a regulation style playing card deck? Have you ever played a game with a deck of Spanish playing cards? Quick! What are the card hand values in poker? Check out some of these facts about standard playing card regulations and various card games for the answers that Alex has put together for us. Let us know if you’ve got some more cool card facts!
Playing Card Weight
Asking the internet how much a standard deck of playing cards weighs threw out more conspiracy theories than Roswell or Area 51: The internet, it seems, isn’t completely sure. How Much Does it Weigh clocked it in at 96 grams (with or without the box, random internet stranger?), this Quora user – sourcing from A Brief History of Playing Cards – puts it at 94 grams – and a couple of users from the Theory11.com forums got their scales out to get to the bottom of it.
Playing Card Regulation Size
According to Reference.com, international standards for playing cards stipulate that the regulation size for playing cards are 2.25 x 3.5” (or 58mm x 88mm) for Bridge and 2.5 x 3.5” (63mm x 88mm) for Poker. (Unfortunately, that also means we’ll never see a bridge tournament played exclusively with really tiny decks – unless any of our readers would like to set that up?)
Cold Decks?
Many players stick their playing cards in the fridge if they want them to return to the fresh-out-of-the-box feel – yes, really! A “cold deck”, though, is something else: cold decks have been rigged, usually by the dealer, to influence the game in some way. It goes without saying that this is a definite no! (A deck ‘going cold’, though, refers to the belief that a deck can be either lucky – hot – or cold – not.)
Not a Full Deck, Eh?
The expression “he/she isn’t playing with a full deck” does not originate from any sort of historical card tax whereby people couldn’t afford the full deck. It’s a simple variation on the classic ‘x short of a’ insult and nothing more. Don’t believe us yet? Check out this piece on MentalFloss.
Decks, Decks, Everywhere
Just how many card decks does a Vegas casino go through? According to the book Vintage Las Vegas, card decks get rotated on a daily basis in most casino’s as standard procedure to prevent the cards being marked, or to circumvent the usual wear and tear. Quora user Hoadley Holz lists the average number as 300, 000 decks in one year, though doesn’t give a source for the information.
Poker Hands
Not sure about your poker hands? CardPlayer.com uploaded this handy list of poker hand rankings if you want to give poker – or video poker – a try.
A Lot of Cards
According to this little bit of history on Funding Universe about the United States Playing Card Co., they sell more than 100 million decks of playing cards per year, more than 20 million of that number supplied to casino’s. Damn!
