Playing card holder

A playing card holder is described in which two plates with diverging inner surfaces extend upward from a base section. The two plates diverge from each other within an angular range of about 1.degree.-8.degree., and preferably about 3.degree.-5.degree., to form a tapered slot within which the playing cards are inserted. The inner surface of each plate is lined with a layer of a flocked material, the layers being partially set into recesses in the opposed surfaces of each plate. The holder retains either a single card or a number of overlapping cards securely in place once they have been inserted into the slot, and yet permits cards to be easily removed without dislodging adjacent cards.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
This invention relates to playing card holders, and more particularly to 
holders adapted to stand by themselves and to hold a number of overlapping 
playing cards at the same time. 
2. Description of the Prior Art 
Numerous attempts have been made to construct a self-standing playing card 
holder that can be used by either adults or children during a card game. 
An ideal playing card holder should be capable of easily accepting either 
single cards or a number of overlapping cards, of allowing one card to be 
pulled out of the holder without other cards unintentionally also being 
pulled out or dislodged, should display the cards so that they can be 
easily recognized and sorted by the user, and should be strong and durable 
in use. Unfortunately, no card holders are available which are known to 
satisfy all of these criteria. In addition, it would be desirable that the 
card holder simulate the action of a human hand as much as possible in 
holding cards. This would include features such as being able to hold the 
device comfortably in one's hand, being able to lay the cards face down 
without their falling out of the holder, and being able to set the holder 
upright either vertically or tilted back at an angle, all with a single 
unitary movement. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The object of the present invention is to provide a novel and improved 
playing card holder which satisfies all of the requirements stated above, 
and which is also simple in construction and easy to use. 
The holder of the present invention includes a base from which first and 
second plates extend generally upward. The plates have opposed surfaces 
which diverge from each other away from the base to form a tapered slot 
within which playing cards are placed. The angular divergence of the 
plates is within the range of about 1.degree.-8.degree., and preferably 
within about 3.degree.-5.degree.. The base includes a stand which is 
adapted to hold the device either vertically, or in a generally upright 
position at an angle tilted back from vertical. 
In the preferred embodiment the opposed surfaces of the plates are each 
coated with a layer of flocked material. The plate surfaces include 
recesses of slightly lesser depths than the thicknesses of the flocked 
layers, allowing the flocked material to be disposed within the recesses 
but still contact the playing cards. The base forms an arcuate bottom stop 
for the slot that prevents cards from being inserted too far and maintains 
a uniform card height. The plates are formed from a stiffly resilient 
plastic material, and the holder is preferably manufactured in two 
sections which are joined to each other at the base. 
Further features and advantages of the invention will be apparent to those 
skilled in the art from the following detailed description of preferred 
embodiments, taken together with the accompanying drawings, in which:

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
A perspective view of a playing card holder constructed in accordance with 
the present invention is provided in FIG. 1. The holder includes a lower 
base section 2 from which a pair of plates 4 and 6 extend generally 
upward. The stand is preferably made from a stiffly flexible plastic 
material such as PVC, polyethylene, nylon, polypropylene, styrene, etc. It 
is preferably formed with an arcuate upper surface so that playing cards 
may be evenly distributed around the upper portion of the stand. 
As best shown in FIG. 2, the two plates 4 and 6 have mutually opposed inner 
surfaces 8 and 10 which diverge away from each other with increasing 
distance from the base section 2. The two plates thus form a tapered slot 
12 within which playing cards may be secured. The angle of divergence A 
between the two plates is within the approximate range of 
1.degree.-8.degree., and preferably is about 3.degree.-5.degree.. It is 
not essential that the plates maintain a constant angle of divergence 
throughout their lengths, but this is preferred. The plates 4 and 6 
include arcuate recesses in their inner surfaces, indicated by dashed 
lines in FIG. 1 for plate 4, within which respective layers 14, 16 of a 
flocked material are partially disposed. The thicknesses of the flocked 
material layers are preferably somewhat greater than the depths of their 
respective recesses, so that the flocked materials extend slightly beyond 
the inner surfaces of the plates to contact the playing cards. Various 
types of flocked material may be used so long as their surfaces produce 
sufficient static friction to securely hold the playing cards in place, 
but display a dynamic friction low enough to enable easy insertion and 
removal of the cards. Examples of suitable materials are felt and 
Rubbermaid Contact Brand Cushion-All Flocked Covering Material. The latter 
is a stick-on material which is provided with a removable paper backing 
and is approximately 0.022 inch (0.559 mm) thick after the backing has 
been removed. 
The plates come into near or total contact with each other at the bottoms 
of their respective recesses. The lower end of recess 8 is extended to 
depth to form a lip 18 which abuts against plate 6 at the lower end of 
recess 10 to provide a stop for slot 12 along the arcuate path indicated 
in FIG. 1. Viewed another way, stop 18 coincides with the upper end of 
base 2. The bottom of the base is squared off, allowing the card holder to 
be stood up vertically during play. The base also includes a pair of legs 
20 which extend out from one side to form a stand for supporting the card 
holder in a generally upright position. The legs are spaced widely apart 
so that the card holder can be hand-held without interference from the 
legs. The underside of legs 20 extend up from horizontal by an angle of 
approximately 18.degree., thus permitting the card holder to be tilted 
back at an approximately 18.degree. angle to vertical when in use. This 
provides better visibility of the cards for a player seated at a normal 
card table. 
An enlarged view of the upper portion of plate 4 is shown in FIG. 3. It can 
be seen that the recess begins slightly below the top of the plate, and is 
shallower than the thickness of flocked material 14. The recess is deep 
enough to prevent the flocked material from extending out from the plate 
so far as to interfere with the insertion of cards into the holder, but is 
shallow enough to ensure that the playing cards make a good surface 
contact with the flocked material. 
The playing card holder described thus far is preferably manufactured in 
two molded sections, each section including a respective one of the plates 
and a portion of the base. Various arrangements may be used to hold the 
sections securely together at the base. For example, the holder can be 
made from plastics such as polypropylene and polyethylene with snaps 
provided along the lower portion of one section and mated with sockets in 
the other section. Alternatively, the holder could be formed from certain 
types of plastics such as polystyrene which can be chemically or 
ultrasonically bonded together. 
Referring now to FIG. 4, the inner face of section 6 is shown; the inner 
face of section 4 is substantially identical. The upper outer periphery 22 
of the section, the upper edge 24 of the recess which holds the flocked 
material and the stop 18 which forms the lower edge of the recess all 
describe mutually concentric arcs. This results in a protrusion of all the 
cards in the holder a substantially uniform distance above the holder. 
A relatively small number of cards 26 are illustrated as being secured by 
the holder in FIG. 5. Since the opposed pieces of flocked material are 
slightly separated at their lower end, the cards bottom out against stop 
18. It is a distinct advantage of the invention that it will accommodate a 
considerably larger number of cards and still hold them with a uniform 
protrusion above the holder. This is important for games in which the 
players must be able to hold numerous cards, such as contract bridge, 
crazy eights and old maid. FIG. 6 illustrates how the holder accommodates 
a relatively large number of cards 28. Since the thickness of the cards 
taken together is greater than the spacing between the opposed sections at 
bottom stop 18, the cards are inserted only partially into the slot. Due 
to the taper of the slot, the cards can be inserted to a depth above stop 
18 at which they are securely held in place, and still extend above the 
holder by approximately equal amounts. 
In operation, the playing card holder is set upright and cards are inserted 
into the slot 12 between the two plates. It has been found that, with the 
combination of tapered plates and the flocked inner surface material, 
either one or a number of overlapping cards will be securely held in 
place, and yet can be easily removed. It is a distinct advantage of this 
construction that, when one card is removed, adjacent cards tend to stay 
in place and are not pulled out along with the moving card. The holder 
also allows cards to be pulled out, reinserted and rearranged continually 
without disrupting the other cards or substantially disturbing the uniform 
card height above the holder. 
Numerous modifications and alternate embodiments of the invention will 
occur to those skilled in the art. Also, while the invention has been 
described in terms of a playing card holder, it is equally capable of 
holding slips of paper, note cards and the like. Accordingly, it is 
intended that the invention be limited only in terms of the following 
claims: