Recommended Playing Card Holders, Card Trays and Card Shufflers

How do you handle a fistful of playing cards? We play Hand and Foot fairly regularly. This game starts you off with 15 cards to hold, organize and play strategically. Then you draw even more cards from the pile!

It gets way out of hand ... too much for my hand ... a veritable handful ... you get the point.

Other multiple deck card games include: Canasta, Pinochle, Samba, Chicago Rummy and Contract Rummy.

Somebody needs to invent a playing card holder. Wait, that's already been done. In fact, there are several clever playing card holder designs. These playing card holders are not expensive, which makes them a good choice for the card playing family and as gifts for the serious card player.

Turns out there are playing card holders to fit every hand and every budget.

We've experimented with several playing card holder designs and have some recommendations for you to chose from and detailed below with prices and sources:

1. Smart handle design, wide playing card holder for adults
   
2. Table based, wide playing card holder with wide base
3. Triangle form, small card holder
4. Paddle style playing card holder for kids
5. Three tiered playing card holder wood
   
6. Smart design wood card holder

What do you do with the draw pile and discard pile?

Lots of card games involve drawing one or more cards from the pile of un-dealt cards, called the draw pile. Then you make some play decisions and then discard a card face up into another pile, called the discard pile. These piles in the center of the table can get pretty messy and disorganized. Two simple solutions:

1. Larger revolving card tray for 4 or 6 decks
2. Small revolving card tray for 1 or 2 decks

Keeping the discards better stacked keeps the last discard on top and other discards out of view. For players with vision problems this can help the player to spot and identify the last discard better.

Neat and helpful. The swivel or lazy-susan action makes it a little easier for everybody to reach the piles.

This is the card holder my wife and mother-in-law use. My wife likes it because she can hold it in her hand or set it on the table in front of her. She says it is also easier to slip the cards in and out, than with some other holders she has tried.

Some friends of ours use these card holders. This is more of a stationary stand to sit in front of you and patiently hold your cards while you ponder and make brilliant card choices.

This is a durable card holder that keeps both hands free. The wide base makes it very stable. Not easy to knock over.

We have a couple of these for guests to use. The kids like them because they fit their little hands better.

This playing card holder for children caught my eye.

The paddle is a fun design and fits the kids hands well. Easier for the little hands to manage.

This design appeals to the engineer in me. Holds the cards and gives me organizing choices.

Hmmm, wild cards in the top row, pairs in the middle row ...

This wooden card holder has a clean, stylish look. It's a simple arc in a very nice wood block.

Simple. Nice design.

Here are two good choices for managing the draw card pile and the discard pile. Both solutions feature revolving trays:

1. Larger revolving card tray for 4 or 6 decks
2. Small revolving card tray for 1 or 2 decks

The pile of cards in the center of the table can get a bit disarrayed as the game proceeds. This tray makes for better, neater piles of both the drawing pile and the discard pile.

When you are dealing with multiple decks, a good shuffle is very important. You want to avoid passing on runs of cards from the previous hand play.

If you shuffle the cards manually, the riffle shuffle is a good way to mix the cards up, and not bend the corners. Checkout the video that shows how the riffle shuffle is executed. -->

A card shuffling device can be very helpful for multi-deck games. For Hand and Foot you need the 6 deck capability.

If you are looking for gift ideas for a poker player, we're talking about a whole other set of accessories!