I have about 6 Bicycle decks, one Jumbo Streamline deck(plastic coated finish.. yuck), and want to get Bee and Aviator next. Which type of cards do you prefer, and why? I'm a Bicycle guy; love the back design and overall finish.

From my experience, the better the cards and the surface the cards are on, the better I could handle the cards. Bee tops the list, and are the mechanic's choice of weapons. The Bee brand had hidden secrets for the mechanic, plus they held up their stiffness about 75% longer than the other brands. A lot of moves I would not even think of doing with those other brands. Bee Brand, all the way.

Aviator is a smooth finish but I like them. But for gambling Dems I stick with Bees.....and Cehowardrc51 obviously approves of them for actual gambling in fast company! So anyone doing anything Gambling related will likely defer to one of the Bee Brands.

It really depends on your style though. Here is a link to a site that I was running. I really did my best to break down cards into useful categories based on your personal tastes in style and skill level. It might give you some ideas. http://www.custom-playing-card.com/buyers-guide.html

Personally, I like Tally-Ho and Aristocrat decks. Bee decks handle nice, but they tend to lack borders. In general though, people are less likely to question a Bicycle deck, so if you're planning to do anything involving a gaffed or otherwise rigged or altered deck, go with Bicycle. If you want the best of both worlds and don't mind spending a little bit extra over the regular Bicycle price, there are also the Richard Turner Gold Seal Bicycle decks:

http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/S11122
http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/S11123

Hiya, I respectfully disagree.

The "tend to lack borders" are one of the "bee brand hidden secrets" for mechanics. Bee brand comes out way on top as far as rigging the deck. However, I must admit, I came over top other mechanics with a bicycle deck in one of my most exciting moves.

Another player had challenged me straight up. In other words, we both are known players and now we are going at it "straight up" playing a game called "casino".. Ha, in my book, known players are supposed to go for a move at all times, and this time I did, and won. In the later years, I told the player what I done, it was kind of like a crowning of the best and we had a good laugh on it.

Here is what happened. I had a deck of bicycle with the birds blotted out so I could tell the A, K, Q, J and 10. That was all the edge I need to beat the other player. Also, to take the suspicion off the deck, I told the other player that this was a "straight deck" that I switched off a "person" that I trimmed. The player did a fast inspection, and since he does that same thing, he understood my explanation. Sweet I tell you that. Now, I could not have made that same move with a Bee Brand deck.. But, this was another player. You give me an ordinary player, and I am going with Bee Brand all the way..

I'll give you that Bee is great for rigging the deck, but certain slights become more difficult when there are no borders. I can achieve the level of precision required about half of the time. There are also several types of specialty deck that just don't work without borders, or at least become really obvious, such as Strippers and Mene Tekel decks.



I suppose at the end of the day, the choice of cards should really be based on what you're going to do with them. The right tool for the right job and all that.

A late reply, but you summed it up perfectly in that last sentence!!

The choice of cards should always be based on what you are going to do, or the job at hand. In any discipline/field having the right tools allows the user to perform to their full potential.