Building a home Poker Table

[jumpthru]

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I can post a few more details tonite....for some reason my work started blocking this site. Probably because they noticed I was spending more time reading twoplustwo than actually working. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

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Try http://proxify.com/

[OrangeHeat]

[yocalif]

Size for 10 players.

We have two tables and play almost every saturday, so we have a lot of experience with seating 9,10,11 players plus a dedicated dealer. Our typical games are two table of 20 to 22 players.

Our two tables are 96" x 44", heights 26" & 28".
We now believe that 27" height is the ideal height.
48" is TOO wide, (if you have dedicated dealer, reaching across to pull chips in the pot either straight across or in the corners forces you to stand up if the table is too wide),you will not find a professional table 48" wide anywhere. I now feel 44" is too wide, 42" would be better, but a trade off is that extra 2" makes it possible to seat 11 players + a dealer. Yes 11 players plus a dealer is a squeeze, especially if you have 2 or 3 wide bodies. Average size bodies, 11 fit nicely.

As for solving the dealing problems on a long table, if you decide not to use a dedicated dealer. Try using 2 players on each side in the center. The deal rotates around with these 4 center dealer/players, use a button to give each player a turn in last position. Make sure that the 4 people dealing know what they are doing, or you will have problems, and the game will not be orderly. To speed up the dealing, keep two decks in play. One deck is being shuffled by a player (not one of the dealers) while the other deck is used for the current hand. The next dealer gets the fresh shuffled deck, and puts one riffle on the deck and cuts the cards himself, and deals. (there is a proper procedure for dealer cuts). You will get 5 to 10 more hands in per hour with this procedure. At first getting into a rhythm is difficult, but eventually the dealers will get there and everything will work smoothly.

good luck

[CrazyEyez]

Yeah I kind of skipped a few steps in the photos. So if anyone's still interested....

If you look at this picture, the bottome layer is 3/4" MDF. The piece on top is just 1/4" pine plywood. Finish grade or something. It's 9" wide. I cut the middle piece out carefully because that is what I padded/felted for the playing surface. I used carpet pad for that, and for the padding on the rail. Tip: use a big ol' pair of scissors to cut carpet pad. I had a tough time using a utility knife.

I used a third sheet of plywood, 3/4", for the rail. Cut a 4" wide piece. (So all three end up stacking on top of each other.) Now take a big piece of carpet pad and glue it to the top of that 4"-wide rail piece. Leave extra to hang over the outside. Cut out the middle. I left a little hanging over the inside which I folded down and stapled to the inside of the rail.

Now get vinyl. Lay it face down, flat. Lay the rail piece on top of it, pad down. Looks like this . Cut the vinyl and fold up and over the rail as in my other pictures. I found out it works best if you do NOT try to pull too tightly at this point. Otherwise you pull the vinyl out of place and end up with wrinkles on top. It took me a few tries and a lot of staple-pulling to figure this out. Now it looks like this . Trim the excess, repeat all the way around the rail. Flip it over and set it on top of the table. I screwed into it from underneath the MDF to secure it. Then pull the pad/vinyl down around the edge of the table and staple underneath. NOW you can pull it tight.

I think that's mostly it. I did NOT put 1x4 or 2x4 bracing underneath the MDF to prevent sagging. Time will tell if that was a mistake. The MDF is stiffer (and HEAVIER) than the plywood. Post more questions or PM me if you want any more info.

Mad props to Hedge H for the design idea. I'm your caucasian!

One other thing - I'm curious to know exactly what fabric people used for the surface. (Besides the expensive stuff.) I actually used flannel which felt great in the store. But I test-dealt cards and they don't slide well at all. So I bought some 100% polyester microfiber which I'm going to put on instead. Seems much better but I haven't fully field tested it.

[jumpthru]

Can you explain a dedicated dealer in a home game??

Did you hire someone? You must rake I assume?

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Size for 10 players.

We have two tables and play almost every saturday, so we have a lot of experience with seating 9,10,11 players plus a dedicated dealer. Our typical games are two table of 20 to 22 players.

Our two tables are 96" x 44", heights 26" & 28".
We now believe that 27" height is the ideal height.
48" is TOO wide, (if you have dedicated dealer, reaching across to pull chips in the pot either straight across or in the corners forces you to stand up if the table is too wide),you will not find a professional table 48" wide anywhere. I now feel 44" is too wide, 42" would be better, but a trade off is that extra 2" makes it possible to seat 11 players + a dealer. Yes 11 players plus a dealer is a squeeze, especially if you have 2 or 3 wide bodies. Average size bodies, 11 fit nicely.

As for solving the dealing problems on a long table, if you decide not to use a dedicated dealer. Try using 2 players on each side in the center. The deal rotates around with these 4 center dealer/players, use a button to give each player a turn in last position. Make sure that the 4 people dealing know what they are doing, or you will have problems, and the game will not be orderly. To speed up the dealing, keep two decks in play. One deck is being shuffled by a player (not one of the dealers) while the other deck is used for the current hand. The next dealer gets the fresh shuffled deck, and puts one riffle on the deck and cuts the cards himself, and deals. (there is a proper procedure for dealer cuts). You will get 5 to 10 more hands in per hour with this procedure. At first getting into a rhythm is difficult, but eventually the dealers will get there and everything will work smoothly.

good luck

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[yocalif]

jumpthru wrote:
[Can you explain a dedicated dealer in a home game??]

dedicated : to set apart to a definite use
dealer: to distribute (playing cards) to players in a game

I'm surprised anyone in this forum would need an explanation of these terms....

jumpthru wrote:
[Did you hire someone? You must rake I assume?]
1st your question: NO
2nd your assumption: NO

[wacki]

awesome posts everyone!!!

georgejetson, would you mind posting those pics? thx

That table you built is awesome!!!! I have to ask you though, do you regret having drink holders in the table like that? I can't tell you how many spills I've seen at poker games. I try and keep small tables around (like at paradise poker) for people to use for drinks and food. BTW what kind of cloth is that?

[wacki]

Also, how hard is it to replace the felt/padding?

[wacki]

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That table you built is awesome!!!! I have to ask you though, do you regret having drink holders in the table like that? I can't tell you how many spills I've seen at poker games. I try and keep small tables around (like at paradise poker) for people to use for drinks and food. BTW what kind of cloth is that?

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This was meant for CrazyEyez [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

BTW what are the dimensions on that table?

[gmunny]

Table is sweeet! I may try to build one this summer. We have been using those bs folding octogonal ones. G$