Card handling for those who've never worked in a Casino

[Troy Rollins]

Sometimes I think SQL is _simple_ compared to handling cards.

Here is my scenario.

I have a deck... er, stack, of cards. Some of which are only used as 
templates for the creation of new cards, while others are data cards 
(ones created from the templates.) A couple others are storing some 
related data, but are not templates, nor data cards created from 
templates.

So, in some of my routines, I only want to reference the "created" data 
cards. I'm probably doing this process very wrong. I start by "marking" 
all the cards. Then I unmark my templates, etc. This leaves only my 
data cards marked.

Now, I see that I can use stuff like "go first marked card". But how 
can I programmatically "go seventeenth marked card"? Or 51st? Or 
One-Thousand One-Hundred and twelfth? I'm not looking for "Next", I 
need to be able to store my location, and move about from the last- 
specifically in groups of cards, like 1-9, 10-18... and so on.

I feel like I have to dig out some of my old magic books I bought when 
I was a teenager.

Is there some convention to card handling of this nature? Using 
backgrounds (but the backgrounds exist in my template cards too...)? 
Custom properties? Do people actually use "marked"?

--
Troy
RPSystems, Ltd.
http://www.rpsystems.net