Poker card protectors have become very popular over the years and are used by many instrumentalists as a trademark item.
One famous example would be WSOP champion Greg “Fossilman” Raymer, who used to bring joker gaming from his collection to use as card protectors.
So if you’re looking to get more involved in the live poker scene, you might want to get one for yourself.
Whether you’re looking to grow your brand and make a statement or just want one for practical purposes, I’ve got some ideas that could help you decide what to use.
Let’s talk about poker card protectors, why they’re used, and how they can help – or hinder! – you at the poker tables.
What Are Card Protectors?
A card protector is any item you bring to the table to protect your hole cards during hands.
In the most basic sense, a card protector can be used to protect your hand from getting accidentally folded, which can sometimes happen in live poker if your hand or an object is not on top of the cards.
To avoid constantly keeping their hand close to their cards, some players choose to use a card protector, or simply use one of their chips.
However, these items have other purposes than simply protecting the cards.
They are more often used as talismans and lucky charms than anything else.
Poker players are a fairly superstitious group of people on average, with many recreational players believing luck has more to do with poker than skill, which is why any favor from the poker gods is a welcome sight.
In reality, a poker card protector usually won’t help you that much – but it won’t hurt you too much either and are often a great talking point.
Not everyone agrees, though. Poker champion and coach Jonathan Little believes there is ยูฟ่าเบท strong argument for not using them at all – but more on that late).
For now, let’s look at some ideas to inspire you. Poker chips most common card protector out there are poker chips. Many players don’t bring a express card protector but rather use the chips they’re playing with to protect their hands.
Using a single chip of the lowest possible denomination is pretty common, although players use other denominations and even groups of chips to protect their cards.
A word of warning: If you’re going to use poker chips as your card protector, make sure you always use the same chip denomination and use the same number of chips to guard your cards.
The reasons are quite obvious, as you don’t want to give away the value of your hand and advertise that you have a premium hand or a medium holding in different situations.
Alternatively, some players use poker chips from other venues or a particular poker chip as their card protector throughout their careers.
Most casinos and poker rooms won’t mind if you bring in a chip that has nothing to do with their chips and use it as a card protector at the tables.
- Personal Lucky Charms
As we saw with the example of Greg Raymer, some players like to use their lucky charms at tables that are unrelated to poker.
He used fossils, but I have seen other players use things like little rocks, toys, and other items of sentimental value that they believe bring them good luck.
Religious items are not off the table either, as some players believe religion and poker mix well, and who’s to say they don’t?
Whether you got your good luck charm from your wife, your priest, or your shaman, you can use pretty much any small item that you believe is lucky as your card protector.
Items like coins, small jewelry, and other small items that won’t cover up your cards are fair game and won’t be banned in any cardroom.
There’ll only start being problems at the casino when you start bringing bigger items that completely cover your cards or could be used to interfere with the game in any way.