Bicycle PrestigePrice: About $25, roughly. Bicycle Standard · Bicycle, US Playing Card Co.Price: About $5, roughly.
Our house deck
The deck most people picture. Poker size, standard faces, shuffles well. If you buy one deck, make it this.
- Good for
- All games · Families
- Skip it if
- You play every week: a plastic deck lasts years longer.
Buy now ↗on Amazon
Our take
Ask ten card players which deck sits in their drawer and most will say Bicycle. It is the pack in films, in cafes, in grandparents' kitchens. The faces are the standard faces: a clear corner index, big pips, court cards you recognise at a glance. That sounds obvious until you try a deck with fancy artwork and spend a game squinting at a seven.
It is also the deck every Pips guide is built around. When a guide says 'one deck', this is the one we mean, and every table you see on the site is dealt from its faces. The paper has a smooth finish that shuffles and fans well, so it is good for fast games like Crazy Eights and slow ones like Bridge alike.
It is not indestructible. Paper bends, and a spilled drink ends a deck. If you play every week, or play outdoors, look at the plastic Copag or the Bicycle Prestige. For everything else, buy this one and buy a second for Spider or Rummy.
Test drive
Play one round against three players. The cards are shuffled for you, the others play by the rules, and nothing is saved.
Games it suits
All card games →- Shedding · 2 to 5 players
Crazy Eights
Match the pile, play an 8 when stuck, empty your hand first.
- Trick-taking · 4 players
Spades
Bid your tricks with a partner. Spades beat everything.
- Shedding · 4 to 7 players
President
Beat the last play, empty your hand, climb from beggar to president.
- Shedding · 3 to 8 players
Cheat
Play cards face down, claim what they are, and call out the liars.
- Patience · 1 player
Spider Solitaire
Two decks, ten columns: build eight runs from king down to ace.
- Trick-taking · 4 players
Euchre
A fast partnership game with 24 cards and two powerful jacks.
Keep reading
- Buying guide
Choosing a deck
Plastic or paper, poker or bridge size, how many decks you need, and the deck we recommend for each of our games.
- Basics
Anatomy of a deck
Fifty-two cards, four suits, thirteen ranks and a couple of jokers. What everything is called, and a few details you have probably never noticed.
- Basics
How to shuffle and deal
Three ways to shuffle, how many shuffles you really need, and the small table manners of cutting and dealing.
Quick answers
- Paper or plastic?
Paper shuffles with more grip and costs less. Plastic lasts for years, shrugs off spills and feels a little slicker. If you play every week, or with drinks nearby, go plastic.
- What size do I need?
Poker size suits most games and most hands. Bridge size is narrower, which helps when you hold thirteen cards or more.
- How many decks do I need?
One for most games. Canasta, Spider and some Rummy variants need two with matching backs.
Also consider
Back to the shelf →Bicycle PrestigePrice: About $25, roughly. 
Bicycle Jumbo IndexPrice: About $6, roughly. Easiest to read
Waddingtons No. 1Price: About $8, roughly.