Copag Cards Review

Copag Cards Review

Copag’s motto is “professional cards, amateur prices” and after inspecting and using their decks in your home poker game, it’s likely you’ll agree.

Copag has been manufacturing plastic playing cards since 1918 at their manufacturing facility in Sao Paulo, Brazil, but until last year, had never exported to the United States. Copag cards are definitely a worthwhile alternative to tough-to-find and higher priced KEM Cards. Like KEM cards, Copag cards are 100% plastic. The texture of Copag cards is very similar to KEM cards and they feel almost identical in one’s hand.

A deck of Copag poker size cards weighs slightly less a deck of KEM poker cards; 4.1 oz per deck for Copags and 4.2 oz per deck for KEM. In addition, they are about 1mm narrower and about 2mm shorter. To the vast majority of poker players, these differences are so subtle that they’d never be noticed unless the cards were compared side by side. A more noticeable difference is the coloring of the cards. The Copag cards were an off-white color, while the KEM Cards were bright white. Another coloring difference was the red ink that was used for the diamonds and hearts. It’s a red that is a brighter variant of the traditional color used on most decks in the US.

The most dramatic difference that was observed between the two decks was their ability to ‘remember’ their shape. One KEM and one Copag card was each held in a bending position for the exact same duration of time. After release, the Copag card quickly went back to its natural shape, while the KEM card had a slightly noticeable bend to it, even after 5 minutes. This is a significant difference between the 2 brands of cards and one that should not be overlooked.

A “setup” of Copag poker cards consists of two decks inside an attractive plastic case and paper cover. A small plastic separator is included to keep the cards from sliding around inside the box.

Copag maintains a toll free 800 customer service number that is staffed at their facility in Brazil. A call to support was answered by a friendly individual with a slight accent, but there were no challenges with the language. A question was asked about their replacement policy for defective cards and the process was explained. Copag requires that a letter or email explaining the defect be sent and they will then mail out a replacement card, along with a prepaid envelope for the bad card to be sent back. In the past, they would mail out an entire replacement deck, but some unethical customers took advantage of this policy and they were forced to change it. In addition, in the past they did not require the defective card to be sent back, so this made it difficult for Copag’s quality control department to ascertain and fix problems. Another query was made about the red ink that is used on the cards and the Copag representative stated that this ink will soon be permanently changed to a more traditional red for cards exported to the United States.

Overall, when comparing quality and price among other 100% plastic poker playing cards, Copag cards seem to be the smart choice.