Smooth card play
Evan Zabawski | TLT From the Editor September 2015
Or how I ‘felt’ a column coming on.
This material is frequently and erroneously referred to as felt but is actually called baize.
www.canstockphoto.com
IN MY FAMILY, WHEN ONE OF OUR DAUGHTERS EMULATES ME OR MY WIFE, we often joke about how acorns don’t fall far from trees. Recently we were all playing cards on our wooden coffee table and the youngest daughter remarked that the cards were difficult to pick up. When she was told that real card tables are coated with cloth to make it easier to pick up cards, the eldest daughter jokingly blurted out, “Next month’s TLT!” Little did I realize that rather than simply being a humorous impression of a common refrain from my wife, there are actually some tribological considerations of the material used on card tables.
The selection of green cloth for card tables is partially explained by the late gambling expert John Scarne in his book New Complete Guide to Gambling: “Card games used to be played illegally in rooms with legal pool tables. Game layouts were drawn with chalk on the green felt of the tables and could then be rubbed away if the cops showed up. Out of tradition, the color was transferred when permanent gaming tables were built.” Green was the color of choice for pool or billiard tables simply because it represented the grass of the original lawn games from which billiards evolved.
The type of cloth selected for billiard tables, and largely ported over to card tables, is based on friction and wear characteristics. Woven wool cloth may be used and may be either worsted or woolen. Woolen is made from carded wool, meaning it has been mechanically separated and stranded using differentially moving surfaces covered with card clothing (think of the hook material from hook and loop closures like Velcro®). Woolen is soft and light, often used in knitting wools.
Worsted, a name for either the yarn or the fabric made from this yarn, is derived from the English village of Worstead, which was a major center for yarn and cloth beginning in the 12th century. Worsted has been combed to ensure the fibers are straight and parallel, yielding a smoother, stronger, harder and finer wool than woolen.
Woolen is the fabric of choice for billiards tables in bars, where the high usage demands a more durable cloth. The cloth is thicker, but the play is slower due to friction from the nap of the fabric. High-quality billiard cloth is typically made from napless worsted, which provides faster roll and greater response to english (swerve and deflection). Snooker cloth usually has a directional nap, so the ball behaves differently depending on the direction.
Either woolen or worsted, this material is frequently and erroneously referred to as felt but is actually called baize (rhymes with maze). Baize has been commonly used on gaming tables for card games, but other choices like microsuede and polyester speed cloth are gaining popularity.
Microsuede, or velveteen, is common on less expensive tables, but it may not handle soiled cards or inexperienced dealers due to its nap. In games where the dealer position is passed around, a dealer on the long end of the table may have cards stick before reaching the intended recipient, drawing the ire of the other players. Napless, polyester speed cloth does not have this issue, as cards will slide the eight-foot length of the table effortlessly. As an added bonus for anyone who has spilled a drink on a card table, it absorbs liquids much more slowly and allows time for clean-up before a stain sets in.
Getting back to the original comment regarding cloth-covered tables aiding the pickup of cards, the nap of the fabric and softness of the material make it easier to flex the middle of the card downward so that the card’s edge may be exposed to the finger. Once that edge is gripped, a player can either flex the card enough to view their hand or pick it up.
Evan Zabawski, CLS, is a senior reliability specialist in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. You can reach him at evan.zabawski@gmail.com.