Hessler's Standard Back Playing Cards

This is such a unique deck that feels familiar if that makes sense. It has the same design as the original red deck, but has modern multicolored faces. If you want to up your card game night this deck is for you. Instead of the traditional 2 colors (red diamond, hearts-black spades, clubs), it has 4 colors (Blue-Spade, Green-Club, Yellow-Diamond, Red-Heart). This makes game play really fun. I've been using these cards for Spades, and Rummy and it always makes a conversation. For the most part, it's pretty similar to the regular red bicycle deck. If you're a playing card collector, you gotta add this to your list. You never know when these will run out.

I have always liked and preferred Bicycle brand playing cards and these cards are no different. I enjoy the change in suit colors that these cards offer. They will also give me the option to create my own extra suit to one card game similar to what is offered in the Five Crowns card game also on the market but which supplies inferior quality cards as compared to Bicycle brand cards. In the end, I like variety.

Very durable and easy to play with

I already own a deck of Hessler's Enhanced Playing Cards, so this will be both a comparison between that deck and Hessler's Rider Back Playing Cards. The Rider Back Cards are available in the standard Red or Blue, with one exception: The "Friendly Quote Card" has the same colored Maiden Back used in the Enhanced deck. There are two "Jokers" with Texas Hold 'em "Hands" and their stats. See the photos Amazon posted. Not very appealing to look at. There are plenty of game play rules online showing the same info. At least one of the "Jokers" could have been the Omnibus Knave included with the Enhanced deck, meaning there is no Omnibus Knave Card provided with the Rider Back decks. There is a spare Queen of Hearts, aka "The Black Maria" which has Gold Metallic Ink highlights . Your 4 spare cards are: 2 Card Play "Jokers", The Black Maria & the Friendly Quote card with the colored Maiden Back. The Ace of Hearts on these decks has annoying "Made in USA" and U.S.P.C.Co. Seal replicas on them. The Ace of Spades has a Skeleton in large center pip. Must we have morbid symbols on our cards? Now for the most disappointing difference between the two types of decks: The colors used on the Rider Back card faces are really dark compared to the Enhanced cards, especially the "Blue" pips on the entire spades suit. Unless you are in a very well lit room or outside, the spades can easily appear to have Black pips. The card colors look simply drab and a lot of detail is not nearly as attractive on the court cards. Because of this, I have returned my two (1 Red & 1 Blue) decks of Hesslers Rider Back cards. Hesslers Enhanced Playing Cards have a nicely colored Maiden Back on them, with the exception of the"Friendly Quote Card" which has a Blue Maiden Back on it. There are two very unique cards included with the Enhanced deck. First is a spare Queen of Spades with a colored, yet predominantly Gray appearance, labelled "The Black Maria". This card also has large Black Pips, but the smaller pips on the indices are a matching gradient Blue. The Enhanced deck version of The Black Maria does NOT have Gold Metallic highlights. Next is a spare Jack of Diamonds, with a mostly Yellow and Orange appearance, labelled "The Omnibus Knave". This card has large Orange gradient pips, but the smaller pips match the rest of the suit in gradient yellow. The fourth "spare" card contains brief rules for the game of Hearts. The 4 spare cards with the Enhanced deck are: The Black Maria, The Omnibus Knave, Hearts Rules of Play card & the Friendly Quote card. The colors used on the Enhanced Playing Card faces are much more vibrant (and pleasing to look at) than those used on the Rider Back card faces, despite being a very similar color scheme. All pips have a black outline on them, greatly improving legibility. You're still stuck with the two annoying symbols on Ace of Hearts and an undesirable Skeleton on the Ace of spades. The Enhanced deck features descriptive script text along the sides of each card face, adding a touch of elegance to the cards. My recommendation is that you avoid the Rider Back decks, as they are a disappointment when you open them up and look at them. The Enhanced deck has much better coloration. It is my unpleasant duty to report that Hessler's Enhanced Playing Cards seem to have been discontinued. It is my sincere hope that Mr. Hessler will again release the Enhanced decks in a much greater quantity. I will never understand why so very many really desirable playing cards have to be printed in such terribly short supply. All they do is get bought up quickly by shady distributors, and sold with really jacked-up prices. Then they disappear altogether. What a terrible shame!!

Beautiful set of cards

These are very high quality in the Rider back tradition.

I love them!

I've been looking into four color decks of cards like this, and while this one seemed like a good idea on paper, once I actually GOT the cards, I quickly realized I wasn't going to be able to use these. The hearts are dark red, the spades are black, the clubs are a dark green... But then you get to the diamonds. The diamonds are a shade of yellow so pale and bright that the cards almost appear to be blank. I own up to not having the best vision in the world (far from it, otherwise I wouldn't be looking into four color decks), but I showed them to my wife, who has perfect 20-20 vision, and even SHE had trouble seeing the diamond cards. It's a shame, really. They're a pretty decent deck of cards otherwise. Unfortunately, the yellow diamonds ended up being the deathblow, and I just can't recommend them to anybody.

Printed by USPCC and feature great handling and quality. No revoke means you can't mistake a red diamond for a a red heart as the diamonds are yellow. Spades are blue (nearly black), diamonds are yellow, clubs are green and hearts are red. Backs are the standard Rider cherub and courts are just recolored to reflect the 4-color theme.

Magie