New Cards -- But Are They New & Improved?

[Marc Desjardins]

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?

[Jack Bando]

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

[RobBizzle]

Are there pictures of the cards anywhere?

[Marc Desjardins]

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.

[plzleenowhammy]

Peek not Peak

[TrustNo1]

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

http://www.usplayingcard.com/

[Killingbird]

oh my god. these are horrible.

[robracing]

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



[/ QUOTE ]

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!

[Jack Bando]

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



[/ QUOTE ]

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!

[/ QUOTE ]

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

[52s]

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.