Pre USPC KEM

[mnguyen281]

I've had a couple setups of pre-uspc KEM casino club cards for a while and just opened one of them yesterday out of curiosity.  i'll preface this by saying i LOVE kem's they have always been my favorite BUT i RARELY if ever open a setup to play with them because after a couple of games i just end up giving them away and getting new ones.  they really are a pain in the ass to maintain.  i have to keep several cut cards on top of each deck plus chips in the original box with the lid weighted down and they still slowly managed to get bowed.  once they get really sticky cleaning them is a bitch too since they never turn out the same.  i've tried submerging them then quickly drying them to wipe with a damp cloth and then wiping with a dry towel but they always harden and get more rigid.  ive owned and played with countless setups of pre and post uspc kems and i love them but i hate throwing them out so much so now i just have several setups sealed in box that i longingly look at from time to time lol.  i settled with fournier 2826's now and they're stiffer, but they have nice number cards and detailed royals just like kem.  i leave the fourniers out on the table after a game for days and they stay straight as an arrow.  cleaning them are a breeze too, but they're not kems. 

anyway back to these original KEM casino cards.

I love the cardboard boxes that most cards come in.  this one is no exception.  besides being brown, its the same as the wsop box and very similar to dal negro, desjgn, etc.  no where as bulky as the plastic cases and they hold the cards much tighter which is good for kems.

i opened a brown/green casino club setup.  the backs are very nice and simple.  the cards were packed tightly in the cellophane, but you can tell that some of the cards were already bowed even though they havent been unwrapped.

the green deck was worse.  you can actually see the top card warped in multiple directions (look at the right side) the brown deck was warped slightly less.  turns out only the top and bottom cards of each deck were warped.  luckily, these two cards were the jokers.  the main 52 cards laid flat on each other even though the green deck curved up very very slightly on each end when faced down.
IF YOU ARE GOING TO BUY ANY PRE-USPC KEMS, CHECK THE DECKS BEFORE YOU BUY THEM.  YOU CAN SEE IF THE DECK IS WARPED IN ANY WAY EVEN WHILE STILL WRAPPED IN THE CELLOPHANE.  the place where i picked these up had several setups that were already messed up even though they were brand new,  its very obvious.  be sure to check the SIDES and the TOPS.  several decks looked flat on the side but were warped from the top.

There have been several reviews online comparing pre to post uspc kems saying that they felt exactly the same.  i'm telling you now coming from a guy who owns a bajillion cards from every manufacturer, they don't.

the pre-uspc kems have a STRONG chemical smell to them.  it may just be since they've been sitting in cellophane for over a decade, but man they sure stink.  the ones i used to play with in the early 2000's had the same smell out of the box.  they also feel better in my opinion.  they're flexible, but they have more texture.  i really don't know how to explain it.  you'll have to try it yourself.  they also shed more than my sh%tzu.  that's normal though.  after a game or two they should stop doing that.

[mnguyen281]

Now here is where it gets interesting.  the GREEN deck (on the right) is dated 197 - or January 1997.  The BROWN deck (on the left) is dated D112.  Can someone help me with this date?  I'm guessing November 2000 but I don't know what the 2 means.

These two decks are VERY different.  Just looking at the Ace of Spades, the graphic in the middle is different.
The font for the pips and the pips itself are different.  The brown is lighter while the green is bold.
The Made in the USA and all the text around there is smaller on the green deck while KEM PLAYING CARDS is bigger and bolder.

looking at the 10's in the second picture, brown is still left and green is still right.  the index and pip on the green deck is bolder but smaller and its closer to the edge of the card.

The picture cards are where its really different.  on the brown deck, the skin tone and colors are a lot more neutral while on the green deck are way over saturated.  look at the red colors on the jokers and the face of the king.  its crazy different.

there are also several print quality issues on the green deck while the brown deck is perfect.  a lot of the red cards have bleeding colors that go onto the white area of the card.

[mnguyen281]

i thought it might just have been a bad deck, so i opened another setup and wow, to my surprise it was the same!  i didn't unwrap the decks, but just by judging the two jokers that were facing out, the brown deck looked normal and the green deck had the funky skin tone.

This is really interesting.  the blue and red setup i have both looked like the brown decks, but both green decks had the same "problem".

i didnt have an open USPC kem deck to compare with, but I do have an open setup of WSOP 2009 tournament cards.  i cant compare the AoS, but i did compare all three KoC.

USPC is on the left, green is in the middle, and brown is on the right.  the USPC and brown deck cards are very similar, but again the colors on the green deck king is way off, the index is smaller but bolder.

all three decks were the same height and thickness when layed flat, but the USPC had a different feel than the older kems (which both felt and shuffled the same).  the USPC deck has not been played with so its not that.  the difference wasn't as great as the difference between kems and copags for example but you can definitely tell you are playing with different cards.

they both shuffle and feel great though, just different.  the pre-uspc kems still smelled like chemical ass though.  all in all, i would recommend them since i like the feeling better, but at an average of $35-$40 per setup, i would recommend just skipping them and going with USPC since they are easily replaceable, have warranty, and the cards are more consistent with each other.

[mnguyen281]

o wait one more thing, the white on the green decks is much brighter than both the brown deck and the uspc deck.

[William]

I can help you with the D112. That'd be November 2002.

[Milo]

And I like that smell almost as much as "New Car" . . . almost.