How to isolate everything inside of a contour, scale it, and test the similarity to an image?

I’m working on a project just for fun, and my goal is to play online poker and have the program identify the cards that are on the table. I am using OpenCV with python to isolate the area where the cards are going to be. I have been able to take an image of that area, grayscale and threshold it, and draw a contour around the edge of the card. I am now stuck on how to move forward.

OpenCV: Choosing HSV thresholds for color filtering

In order to filter a color out of an image, it’s necessary to set boundaries as to which color needs to be detected. I have a feeling this is mostly a trial-and-error process. Are there any ways to quickly find the correct thresholds for a particular color? In this specific case I’m trying to detect the gray area of the graph in the picture below. This without detecting the dotted lines of course. For this example I need very specific boundaries. The question is, how can I find them easily?