Re: Advice for card game database structure

[Peter Brawley]

> I could make a big string field in the player table and store all their cards in a comma separated list,

The worst possible idea. It breaks the fundamental rule of atomicity, one value per cell. Make yourself familiar with the basics of the relationa model, eg https://www.artfulsoftware.com/mysqlbook/sampler/mysqled1ch01.pdf

From your sketchy description of the requirement, you need tables for cards, for players, and for player_cards as Phil indicates. But that's just an initial impression, not a design. You won't know what else you need till you execute a database design method like https://www.artfulsoftware.com/dbdesignbasics.html