A new collectible trading-card set featuring poker players is set to released next month in the form of the 2025 Leaf Metal Poker set. Described as a 'boutique' release by one of the people involved with the set's production, 2025 Leaf Metal Poker bears little resemblance to the trading cards of decades past, nor, for that matter, to the handful of poker card sets that have also been produced in more recent years.
That's because 2025 Leaf Metal Poker is an autograph delivery vehicle only. A box of Leaf Metal Poker carries a $90 retail price and includes six cards, but all six cards in the box feature at least one autograph, with one of the six cards being a multiple-signed 'insert' card that can carry as many as eight seperate poker-player signatures.
At a retail price of $15 per card, the product might seem a bit pricey. On the other hand, though in most cases it's only a pittance, the players included in the seat receive at last a few dollars for the autographs most of them have always given away for free.
The set was first announced in 2023 with a scheduled release date planned for 2024, though the project lagged and will now appear sometime in March. The set is produced by Dallas-based Leaf Trading Cards in conjunction with poker-player representation agency Poker Royalty, which, among other duties, contracted with the players involved and procured the player photos used in the set.
Inside the 2025 Leaf Metal Poker set
According to the original announcement, 200 different cards are included in the set, featuring 40 different players. Each of these 50 players contributed up to 25 autographs for use as part of the 'base' autograph set, for an average of 125 signatures per player, with each player's base cards also individually numbered from 1 up to a maximum of 25 for any given base card.
However, the product also includes several different insert sets (also often called 'chase' cards), which include the multiple-autograph cards and other inserts that can appear as one of the other five cards in any given six-card box. The insert cards usually depict the most well-known players, meaning that most of those well-known pros may have provided several dozen additional autographs above the average of 125 autographs per player for use throughout the set.
The multi-signed inserts are known as Stacked Signatures, while the other inserts comprise the Bracelet Winners and Ante Up chase sets. The Stacked Signatures come in Pairs (two autographs per card), Three of a Kind (three autos), Four of a Kind (four autos), or All In Signatures (with eight autos).
So, what players are included? Leaf has yet to release a full checklist showing all the players involved. The set is believed to include all the players represented by Poker Royalty, including Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, and Daniel Weinman, who were mentioned in the initial product announcement.
Promotional imagery and information from other sources also confirms numerous other players as being part of the release, including Patrik Antonius, Scotty Nguyen, Espen Jorstad, Jennifer Harman, Eli Elezra, Jason Koon, Jesse Sylvia, Alan Keating, Antonio Esfandiari, Jeremy Becker, Nikko Limo, Mike Matusow, Jared Bleznick, Steve 'Cuz' Buckner, Maria Ho, Caitlin Comeskey, and Robbi Jade Lew, who also posted an Instagram video last year of her signing session.
Value: To be determined
It's hard to guess the long-term value of a product such as this. Compiling a complete set might be an ultimate dream for some collectors, but the value of certified and verified autographs from certain key poker pros is likely to drive the longer-term value and popularity. Boutique releases often climb in value immediately after release, then slowly slide lower over the coming years and months as other products battle for collectors' attention and dollars.
Scarcity is another factor. The Leaf landing page for the set already shows the product as a sellout, though that means that the bulk of the release has already been reserved by interested wholesalers and retailers, who will in turn sell the boxes on to the collectors. Those retailers certainly include Bleznick, whose Blez Sports Cards trading-card shop has set up a retail booth at the WSOP in recent years.
Leaf has not announced a total print run for the 2025 Leaf Metal Poker release, though it's likely to check in around 120 to 150 ten-box cases. That's about as 'boutique' as it gets; it's not a product for everyone, nor is it intended to be.
Images courtesy of LeafTradingCards.com/Jesse Fullen
