Royal Plastic Playing Cards Review

Royal Plastic Playing Cards

Sample deck provided by

These cards have a more plastic feel and shiny look to them than the other plastic cards. They have the same plastic feel as the KEM's but with much less texture - they feel smoother, more glossy, and much more slippery. They have an absolutely smooth, almost 'mirror' like look and feel to them.

The Royal cards had the brightest white of all the cards I reviewed. These cards were such a bright and shiny white that is hard to see the left edge of the cards in the scans shown above. The Royal cards had the deepest colors. See the deeper red color in the ten of hearts shown above? The black was a vivid, dark black and the red was a deep blood color. The Royal cards had the most shine to them but the colors and brightness began to fade fairly quickly.

The thickness of all 52 playing cards was 13.78mm making them the second thinnest cards overall (Aviator paper cards are the thinnest). They feel thicker than they actually are. Ten bridge size cards weighed 18.0 grams.

Royal Plastic Playing Cards come in a very nice plastic case, the best case of all the single decks reviewed here. The lid for the case does not close tight enough to stay closed so you must use an elastic band, or the original paper sleeve that case came in, to keep the case closed.

One home tournament of play was fine with Royal cards but I noticed substantial color loss and sticking during the second tournament. By the end of the second tournament I was ready to stop using them. They were still in fairly good condition but they began to feel like a paper card. Dirt and oil from players' hands seemed to slowly deteriorate the cards, they felt softer and the colors faded. I never really liked playing with these cards, they were just too shiny and glossy and they picked up the glare of the overhead lights.

I have played in several local tournaments of about 100 players where Royal cards have been used. In general, players liked the cards and some players who have only used Bicycle or Bee cards were very impressed. The low price and bulk boxes make Royal cards a good alternative to paper cards for large tournaments but if you are only going to buy a couple decks of cards for your home tournament, you should spend the extra money to buy a better quality and longer lasting plastic card.

These are the lowest priced of the plastic cards and are about one third the price of KEM cards. You can find Royal cards for as low as $3 per deck. You can buy them by the carton and they can sometimes be found in local 'Dollar Stores' for a buck or two per deck. Royal cards will not last as long as other plastic cards, but cost quite a bit less. The corners will begin to chip after a few uses but they are a fair deal for the money.