There is so much fun and learning to be had with cards.
When I first started with magic, they never left my side.

Nowadays, I do not carry cards at all, impromptu.
Having mastered the sleights, it is to easy to perform miracles using other peoples cards when the opportunity presents itself in social gatherings.
As a performer, I do not carry cards table-hopping. However, the question "do I carry cards?". Yes, X-Act by Mark Mason and Premonition by Eddie Joseph if I am table performing.

As I've gotten more into cards with a monster commute (about 90 minutes via bus and train) I usually have a deck of cards with me in my back pack. I'll practice double lifts, top changes, and various cuts while waiting for train or bus (weather permitting).

I don't have a guard, and my cards get beat up; I go through about a deck a month (not as bad as Richard Turner who's said to have had a 3-4 pack a day habit). I've started buying bricks of cards at Costco.

I keep a deck of cards in my car. I must admit, when I am driving in LA, traffic lights are often long and a good time to practice various one handed cuts and other card flourishes.
Passes the time!

Good to see this thread is still going. 💪🏽😊

And guys, that’s how you get good this stuff…practice, practice, practice. 😁 That’s about how got to be a decent-at-best coin guy, walking through the streets of NYC with coins in my hands. 😁 And I found it’s about the same thing with cards, you gotta keep playing with them.

Learn what you need to know, and a regular deck of cards is all you’ll ever need. 😉 I just do a few card tricks of the many I’ve come to learn because I’m still a coin guy at heart. But, I’ve gotten a good handle on a few nice card tricks behind my spending some good time with cards. Played a lot with the tricky stuff too, but came to see how freeing it is to just find your way with better learning the moves and just using a regular deck. It has been a real tutelage and quite a bit of fun. 😁

I carry ten playing cards in a packet wallet or origami wallet for a couple of effects - Kranzo's EZ Oil and Water and a matching effect that I was turned on to from a Craig Petty video. I already knew the setup for the matching routine from a Bruce Bernstein routine. I keep the cards in my shirt pocket or a jacket pocket.

I nearly always have a deck of cards on me as there is so much you can do with cards compared to other items, that's coming from someone who doesn't class himself as as card guy too.

I generally have a deck on me, but I try to carry a couple options and stay away from cards MOST of the time.