Cockroach Poker is one of the smallest full games covered anywhere in this cluster, and that's genuinely the point of its design, not a limitation.
Designed by Jacques Zeimet and originally published by Drei Magier Spiele, a Schmidt Spiele studio, in 2004, English-language copies have circulated through several publishers over the years, with Drei Magier Spiele's own multilingual edition now the standard release.
The entire game fits in a box roughly the size of a small coaster set, which makes it one of the few games here worth building a storage plan specifically around portability rather than just protection.
Here's the real card size, why it falls just outside a standard sleeve fit, and how to protect this one without undoing what makes it so easy to throw in a bag.
Cockroach Poker's deck contains 64 cards split across eight creature types, cockroaches, bats, flies, toads, rats, scorpions, spiders, and stink bugs, with eight cards of each type. Players bluff about which creature is on the card they're passing, betting the other player either believes or doesn't.
That flat, even 8-by-8 structure is part of why the game teaches in under two minutes, there's no hand management or scoring track to explain beyond the one core bluff.
Cockroach Poker's cards measure 59mm by 92mm, confirmed by sleeveyourgames.com's dedicated listing for the game. That's narrower than the 63.5mm standard poker width but noticeably taller than the roughly 89mm standard poker height.
That combination, narrower and taller at the same time, is an unusual shape even among the non-standard sizes covered elsewhere in this cluster, and it's exactly why a standard sleeve doesn't cleanly solve this one.
A card at 92mm tall genuinely exceeds a standard sleeve built around an 89mm interior height, which means the top edge of a Cockroach Poker card won't fully seat inside EVORETRO's standard-size sleeve lineup. The narrower 59mm width isn't the problem here; the extra few millimeters of height is.
A dedicated board-game sleeve brand offering a true 59 by 92mm cut is the correct fix for buyers who want a precise sleeve fit, since forcing a slightly-too-short standard sleeve onto a slightly-too-tall card leaves the top corner exposed.
Cockroach Poker's original box measures roughly 11cm by 11cm by 3.5cm, about 4.33 by 4.33 by 1.38 inches, confirmed by the publisher's own listing. That's small enough to slide into most jacket pockets or the side pocket of a backpack without a second thought.
That compact footprint is a real selling point worth protecting on purpose, since swapping the deck into a bulkier generic deck box would undo the exact portability advantage that makes this game worth owning in the first place.
The EVORETRO Resealable Team Bags are a good fit for this specific problem, since a single bagged 64-card deck adds almost no bulk compared to the unprotected cards while still keeping them dust-free and corner-protected during travel. That's a meaningfully better travel solution than a rigid deck box that erases the game's small-box advantage.
For collectors who do want a rigid container, the EVORETRO Plastic Deck Box comfortably holds the full 64-card deck, though it's worth knowing upfront that it's a noticeably bulkier footprint than the original tiny box.
Cockroach Poker's short, social sessions mean its cards get handled quickly and often, passed face-down across a table repeatedly within a single round, which puts real wear on an unsleeved deck over time. A group that plays this one regularly at game nights or on trips gets more real value out of protecting it than a game that comes out once a year.
Given the game's travel-first design, prioritizing a flexible, low-bulk protection option over a bulkier rigid case keeps the whole point of owning this specific game intact.
Because the whole game, box and all, is small enough to disappear into a jacket pocket, it's worth planning travel protection around that same footprint rather than defaulting to whatever deck box happens to be on hand. A single bagged deck slipped into a day bag's side pocket survives a trip far better than loose cards rattling around an opened box.
For anyone who keeps a rotation of small, travel-friendly games on hand for trips or waiting rooms, Cockroach Poker is worth keeping sleeved specifically because it's one of the few in that rotation small enough to actually carry every time.
64 cards, eight each of eight different creature types.
59mm by 92mm, narrower and taller than standard poker-size cards.
Not quite, the extra height exceeds a standard sleeve's interior clearance.
Roughly 11cm by 11cm by 3.5cm, genuinely pocket-sized.
Protect the deck without losing its pocket-sized advantage using EVORETRO's Resealable Team Bags.
See our Board Game Card Sleeve Buying Guide for general non-standard sizing theory, and Bluffing and Social Deduction Card Games for more games built around the same core bluff-and-call mechanic.
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