New Cards -- But Are They New & Improved?
 

From the pokernews coverage of event #1

New Cards -- But Are They New & Improved?

One of the "improvements" that Harrah's has implemented this year is brand new decks for every day of the bracelet events. The new decks are called "Poker Peak," but it wasn't clear what had changed about them.

Now, in the first few hands, we know what has changed. And the criticisms from the players are harsh.

Mike Matusow was frothing at the mouth, and yelled, "Did you see these cards? You can't see the cards! Where's Jeffrey Pollack?"

Doyle Brunson took his seat next to Layne Flack, ready to play his first hand of the 2007 World Series of Poker. But when he checked his cards, he had to do a double take. "What the hell are these?"

It gets worse. Two players have already asked for a refund. Johnny Chan has complained and threatened to refuse to play. Daniel Negreanu called them the worst cards he's ever played with.

Before the tournament began, Chad Layne said he had been playing some satellites, and watched as players misread their hands -- in some cases, even the dealers. Layne got some practice in, and feels ready to deal with the cards now that there are bracelets at stake.

What's the problem? The six and the nine are particularly problematic, and easily confused with each other. The "pips" in the center of the card are much smaller than normal, and contained in a box. Instead of having large numbers in the top left and bottom right corners, they are sort of in the lower left and top right -- and that's what makes the sixes and the nines confusing, because the six is in the general area where an upside-down nine would normally appear.

There are still numbers in the upper left corner, but they are extremely small and at an angle, and they're easy to overlook.

T.J. Cloutier, who is on the Player's Advisory Committee, claims that these are *not* the cards that the players approved. (He's also asked to speak to Jeffrey Pollack.) That's an interesting wrinkle -- perhaps there are better cards somewhere, waiting in the wings?

The big question for now is this -- How quickly can Harrah's fix the problem? Or, is it possible for the players to adapt?

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Glad to see Harrah's is treating the WSOP like an important event and not cutting corners and angering their big names.

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Are there pictures of the cards anywhere?

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From the same report:

Misreading Cards

There has been a lot of problems with the new cards. Michael Binger won a pot because his opponent misread his hand. The player thought he had 6-6 when in fact he had 6-9. Binger's A-Q took down the pot. Lucky for that player, the format was Limit and he only lost a small pot.

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http://www.pokerpages.com/images/new...e-may22-01.jpg

Peek not Peak

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http://www.kardwell.com/bicycle-poker-peek.htm

http://www.usplayingcard.com/

Re: New Cards -- But Are They New & Improved?
 

oh my god. these are horrible.

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perhaps there are better cards somewhere, waiting in the wings?



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According to Phil Gordon on the ESPN Poker podcast, Kem have donated 30k decks of these cards for the series, so no, they ain't gonna be changing them!

Re: New Cards -- But Are They New & Improved?
 

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perhaps there are better cards somewhere, waiting in the wings?



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According to Phil Gordon on the ESPN Poker podcast, Kem have donated 30k decks of these cards for the series, so no, they ain't gonna be changing them!

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1)They're Bicycle cards, not Kems.
2)If enough players complain, they might think about it.

Re: New Cards -- But Are They New & Improved?
 

Unbelieveable.

They do the right thing (go back to Kem) and then do the wrong thing.

Unbelievable.

IS IT REALLY THAT HARD TO RUN THE WSOP?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?

EDIT: Yeah, USPC owns Kem, Bicycle/Kem, same company.

Re: New Cards -- But Are They New & Improved?
 

http://www.pokulator.com/img/cards.jpg

Re: New Cards -- But Are They New & Improved?
 

but i bet they'll be telling us about how the burgers are better this year, win some lose some

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They look horrible. I don't play much live but wouldn't like to play with those. Are they designed to be easier to see on TV rather than be good to play with or something?

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Holy Sh*t!

The 6 and the 9 are pretty easily confused with one another!

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oh my god, why would they change how the cards are. It it ain't broke don't fix it. i can't tell the damn difference between the 6 and 9 looking at the whole card without doing a double take, that canbe a tell too, player has to look at entire card to figure out what he has.

I think they tried to be slick by putting the numbers angled in the corner to hopefully help poker players but with the cards completely exposed they are confusing to look at.

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OMG those are terrible! I would get so confused playing.

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This was a horrible idea.

Harrah's really should have tested these first.

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Jack Eiffel is getting new cards ASAP (see my topic)

The 2 hour nightmare is over soon.

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but with the cards completely exposed they are confusing to look at.

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Right.

Checking your hole cards should be fine, as you are just looking at the corner.

There is however considerable scope for misreading the board.

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i bet dealers were misreading boards alot too.

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YUCK

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yea they announced these cards are going in the crapper and the will be going back to the old cards asap

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If you look at the aces on the USPC Co's website and the aces in the pokulator picture posted above, you can see that there is a difference on which side the big "A" is on. It's like that for all the cards actually which I'm sure leads to the problem with the 6's and 9's being confused.

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lol, i kinda like them

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lol, i kinda like them

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There's always one..

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Lucky they started with a holdem event. Stud 8 or O8 would have brought hillarity.

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This had to be a printing error (regarding the 6 and 9). It just doesnt make sense otherwise.

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It's truly amazing this can happen at the World Series of Poker. Wow.

Harrah's is doing their best to ruin the reputation that the WSOP has built up over the decades.

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Holy Sh*t!

The 6 and the 9 are pretty easily confused with one another!

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lol, i kinda like them

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I bet there will be 30k decks available soon at a big discount [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

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Whoever made those cards should be shot. Seriously.

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perhaps there are better cards somewhere, waiting in the wings?



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According to Phil Gordon on the ESPN Poker podcast, Kem have donated 30k decks of these cards for the series, so no, they ain't gonna be changing them!

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1)They're Bicycle cards, not Kems.
2)If enough players complain, they might think about it.

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Actually, they are USPC KEM's!

From the Official WSOP Media Guide :

"WSOP participants will enjoy a new Official Tournament Playing card from The U.S. Playing Card Company. In another first for the WSOP, every day every table of every bracelet event will start with a new setup of cards made of USPC's KEM stock, widely considered the finest playing-card stock in the world."

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My dad was visiting Vegas and went to a store that said these things were the greatest card invented and that they were flying off the shelves. He, of course, grabbed a couple of packs to send to me back in NY.

Looks like I have 104 new coasters.

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I played the casino employee's event (and went busto) and they still used these cards for that event and it was a major pain.

Not only were the 6 and 9 confusing, but for some people ditto the Ace and 4, and on top of that spades from clubs and hearts from diamonds.

If a board came out uni-color nearly everyone in the hand leaned forward and squinted to differentiate suits. And forget it if the board came out all black or red.

Re: New Cards -- But Are They New & Improved?
 

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It's truly amazing this can happen at the World Series of Poker. Wow.

Harrah's is doing their best to ruin the reputation that the WSOP has built up over the decades.

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Wrong. US Card Company screwed up by trying to create a different kind of playing card in the hopes it would take off. The attempt failed, and WSOP managed to fix the problem six hours into the first event, when a new shipment arrived and was put in play. That's one hell of a reaction time.

They'll be getting the rest in the next day or two, which is why the employees were forced to use the bad batch.

Re: New Cards -- But Are They New & Improved?
 

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It's truly amazing this can happen at the World Series of Poker. Wow.

Harrah's is doing their best to ruin the reputation that the WSOP has built up over the decades.

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Wrong. US Card Company screwed up by trying to create a different kind of playing card in the hopes it would take off. The attempt failed, and WSOP managed to fix the problem six hours into the first event, when a new shipment arrived and was put in play. That's one hell of a reaction time.

They'll be getting the rest in the next day or two, which is why the employees were forced to use the bad batch.

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You're saying that USPC forced Harrahs to use these cards? And Harrahs did a remarkable job of minimizing damage caused by USPC's poor judgement???

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Harrah's ordered those specific cards. It's not like they called up USPC and said "give us 30k decks of whatever" and then USPC decided to send them these terrible cards.

Re: New Cards -- But Are They New & Improved?
 

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It's truly amazing this can happen at the World Series of Poker. Wow.

Harrah's is doing their best to ruin the reputation that the WSOP has built up over the decades.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wrong. US Card Company screwed up by trying to create a different kind of playing card in the hopes it would take off. The attempt failed, and WSOP managed to fix the problem six hours into the first event, when a new shipment arrived and was put in play. That's one hell of a reaction time.

They'll be getting the rest in the next day or two, which is why the employees were forced to use the bad batch.

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You're saying that USPC forced Harrahs to use these cards? And Harrahs did a remarkable job of minimizing damage caused by USPC's poor judgement???

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Not only is that the buzz from the people in the know on the floor, its also totally logical.

I would assume that the USPC's deal was a barter trade, the USPC's value in the barter would only be if they could launch their new poker peek design cards. I assume it was USPC's hope that if the poker peek design caught on it would encourage card rooms to replace their old setups with the new design. This is of course just an educated guess, but anyone who has experiance with sponsorship would probably agree that I'm likely very close to being correct at worst.

Its possible Harrah's might have seen this possible outcome in advance and knew the course of action to take if something went wrong. Either way we gotta give Harrah's credit for doing something right for the players, even if it embarrasses their sponsor.

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TT, please explain this to me, because I don't understand.

Are you suggesting that "the buzz from the people in the know on the floor" is that Harrahs agreed to use these radically re-designed cards, but that they didn't see, know, or approve the new design beforehand? Are you saying that when the players saw these cards for the first time, that was the same instant that Harrahs saw them for the first time?

It seems like that's what you're saying. Harrahs was just an innocent bystander while USPC perpetrated this outrage. Harrahs had no idea that the cards were going to look like this.

Is that your meaning? Because that's how I'm taking what you wrote.

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Clearly USPC thought they were going to make a bundle on these things, and clearly the poker press is a bunch of shills. For example:

Bodog article

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What’s that you say? No room for improvement on the standard playing card? We beg to differ.

Bicycle, the world’s largest maker of playing cards, is launching the new Bicycle Pro "PokerPeek" playing card at the 2007 WSOP. The PokerPeek is designed to prevent people from having to lift the corner of their poker cards up too high when checking to see what they’ve been dealt. By installing the cards appropriate icon in each of the four corners players nedd only peel it up an inch or so to see what you’re holding.

"Poker continues to be America’s number one card game," said Rob Clendening, Bicycle Brand Manager. "Bicycle Pro with PokerPeek is the first significant face style change for playing cards in decades. The card itself also delivers technical superiority and the highest quality paper card suitable for professionals, now available to anyone who is serious about the game."

It sure will be fun to watch Doyle Brunson and T.J. Cloutier trying to read those things. They’ll have to pull out those wallet-sized magnifying glasses that all the hip folks of their generation are using to read restaurant menus. You can witness the spectacle yourself by qualifying for the WSOP and winning one of Bodog’s $12,000 WSOP prize packages.

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Poker Pages article
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New Bicycle Pro 'PokerPeek' Playing Card Design Debuts at 2007 World Series of Poker
by PokerPages.com
Sun, May 20th, 2007 @ 12:00am

Bicycle, the leading playing card brand from the United States Playing Card Company (USPC), is planning to introduce its 'Bicycle Pro' cards at the 2007 World Series of Poker June 1, 2007 which will feature the innovative new 'PokerPeek' face design.

For USPC, who is an official supplier to the annual World Series of Poker, the release will be the biggest consumer product launch in the company's 120-year history. The new face style is the first significant poker card innovation since the 1960's introduction of jumbo face cards.

pipBicycle Pro are premium playing cards for serious competitive and social card players. The new Bicycle Pro cards with the 'PokerPeek' face design will be available for retail sale simultaneously with its introduction at WSOP.

The exclusive PokerPeek design features a smaller, diagonally positioned corner marking (pip) to discreetly view and identify the card (see photo) as well as a jumbo-like face positioned lower at the center of the card, making the cards easier to identify when revealed.

Developed with input from the world's top professional poker players, Bicycle created the PokerPeek face style as a solution to problems experienced in competition. Less experienced players were peeling up too much of the card edge, compromising security. Bicycle Pro provides more privacy for individual players, and better visibility for all players when the cards are face-up.

"Poker continues to be America's number one card game," said Rob Clendening, Bicycle Brand Manager. "Bicycle Pro with PokerPeek is the first significant face style change for playing cards in decades. The card itself also delivers technical superiority and the highest quality paper card suitable for professionals, now available to anyone who is serious about the game."

The premium Bicycle Pro playing card is made of a durable, custom blend of cotton and paper, and features ProCut edges, a barely visible beveled edge that gently grips fingers for better control during shuffling.

The card back design is a new variation on Bicycle's famous Rider Back, inspired by the custom cards specially developed for the 2007 World Series of Poker. Cards for retail sale will carry the same edge border as the WSOP cards, but swap out the WSOP logo and Jeffrey Pollack's signature in the center for the trademark cupid on a bike (see photo of the two cards).

Tournament cards used at the World Series of Poker will be the exclusive KEM brand with the PokerPeek face and a Bicycle branded card back design. KEM is a super-premium card printed on cellulose acetate, a blend of paper and plastic, used in 80 percent of casino poker rooms. It joined Bicycle in the U.S. Playing Card brand portfolio in late 2005.

For more information about these high quality cards, visit www.usplayingcard.com.

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