Mini Playing Cards: What They Are Good For

A mini deck is a complete 52-card deck shrunk to a fraction of the usual size. It sounds like a novelty, and some are. A properly made one is a genuinely useful thing to carry.

What they are good for

• Travel. A mini deck lives in a coin pocket, a wallet or a toiletry bag. When someone asks whether anybody has cards, you do.
• Small spaces. Solitaire on a tray table, cribbage on a train, a game on a camping mat.
• Stocking stuffers and party favours. A small, cheap, genuinely playable present.
• Collecting and display. Tiny decks are a small collecting hobby of their own.

What to look for

• Real printing. The faces should be crisp and the indices readable, not a blurred photo of a deck shrunk down.
• Proper cards. They should shuffle and deal like cards, not stick together like paper scraps.
• A tuck box to keep the deck together; loose mini cards vanish one at a time.

The honest limits

Mini cards are fiddly for large hands and hard to read for anyone who struggles with small print. For a regular game at home, a full-size deck — or a jumbo index deck, for easy reading — is better. The mini deck is the one you carry for when you are not at home.

As a gift

Mini decks suit stockings, party bags and Christmas crackers, and they suit the card player who likes having a deck on them at all times. Pair one with a full-size plastic deck for a gift that covers home and away.