Differences in card brands

[Blue Efficacy]

Most of the casinos around here use "Bee" cards, which I am very much used to. However, one casino uses "carta mundi" cards, and it drives me crazy. These cards are SO MUCH thinner, it is ridiculous. And their gift shop doesn't sell cards from the tables, either. So I had to search high and low for that brand of cards. Finally, I found some.

I compared a deck of those to a deck of regular Bee casino playing cards.

The bees were 3 cards higher than the carta mundis after carefully leveling them off.

Needless to say, with 6 decks that difference becomes closer to a half deck, which is significant to say the least.

I am sure most people here already know this, but be careful! Not all brands of cards are equal, or even close to equal! I know in order to be as effective as possible I am going to have to re-learn deck estimation for this brand of cards. Also, another local joint recently switched from Bees to Gemaco. Here we go again...

On the other hand, I am very impressed with the quality of Cartamundi cards. Very good card stock, you can almost bend it in half and flatten it out just fine again, and a perfect finish, which is very smooth, but not quite too smooth.

 

[SystemsTrader]

Differences in the exact same brands

After reading your post yesterday Blue I happened to be in a casino last night where some casino employee had marked the discard tray in magic marker at the top of the 8 decks with a hash mark. The tray was also marked at the 6 deck point. This was an ASM table so two sets of 8 decks are used. At the end of the shoe when the dealer placed the cutoffs in the discard tray before inserting them into the ASM I was able to see that one set was right on the mark and while the other set was about 3/32 of an inch over the line.

The table was opened in the morning so I assume these cards were used all day and I guess with all the handling and shuffling numerous cards get bent and can increase the thickness of the decks. Just another thing to have to consider.

 

[Blue Efficacy]

After reading your post yesterday Blue I happened to be in a casino last night where some casino employee had marked the discard tray in magic marker at the top of the 8 decks with a hash mark. The tray was also marked at the 6 deck point. This was an ASM table so two sets of 8 decks are used. At the end of the shoe when the dealer placed the cutoffs in the discard tray before inserting them into the ASM I was able to see that one set was right on the mark and while the other set was about 3/32 of an inch over the line.

The table was opened in the morning so I assume these cards were used all day and I guess with all the handling and shuffling numerous cards get bent and can increase the thickness of the decks. Just another thing to have to consider.

Did this store use Bees? Another thing about them in my experience is it seems they puff out easier.

 

[SystemsTrader]

Did this store use Bees? Another thing about them in my experience is it seems they puff out easier.

I don't know the next time I'm there I will check. It might be a month or two.