Building A Poker Table

Intro

Here is a quick list of the different parts of a poker table and options you may choose from when building your own poker table.

Basic Options

  • Rail - Cover Material

    There are a few different types of material you can use to make your rail, including: vinyl, suede, leather. When choosing between the different options, you should consider: durability, comfort, and cost.

  • Rail - Padding

    You will need padding for the rail. Many poker table builders use one inch of heavy-duty foam padding.

  • Table - Padding

    You want good firm padding under the cloth on playing surface. Don't use cheap padding. Many builders use 1/4" of foam padding.

  • Fabric

    This is one of the most important factors in your poker table building plans. The main variable is the feel of the fabric, but looks also matter too. When it comes to feel, the main variable will be how fast the cards slide. As far as looks go, there are a ffew options you will want to look at: (1) the color of the cloth (2) patterned or solid (3) a full color graphic or logo.

    Speed cloth is a popular choice among poker table builders. It will not pill up like felt. There are different types of speed cloth available. The speed cloth sold for home poker market will be a cheaper version of the more expensive casino cloth and will likely be made out of polyester (but this is still good).

    If you want felt, you can buy good billiard cloth from a pool table installer. For a cheaper felt then velveteen felt is an economical choice, although it is not as smooth as speed cloth.

    You can order samples to feel, but the usefulness of these samples may be limited because you can't tell how the cards will slide on them.

  • Cup Holders

    For these, you will have a few decisions to make. Do you want the cup holders implanted in the rail or within the playing surface? The better option is to have them in the rail because when they are in the playing surface, they get in the way of dealing the cards. The other relevant question is whether or not you want plastic, stainless steel, or brass. Non-plastic cups will cost a little more. A third question is how big do you want the cups? Two popular sizes are 2 5/8" or 3 1/2".

  • Legs

    There will be a few different decisions you will have to make with your poker table legs. (1) Do you want folding or non-folding legs? (2) Do you want wood or metal? (3) Do you want legs with a footrail? (4) Do you want legs with any kind of ornate styling? (5) Do you want thinner, cheaper legs, or more solid, thicker pedestal legs?

Advanced Options

  • Decorative Nails

    These are used to nail in the rails to the side of the table, but also add an elegant look to your table. These will add to the cost of your table without adding much of any benefit beyond aesthetics. The nails may be made out of stainless steel, nickel, or brass.

  • Table Brush

    Used to brush the felt to clean the table.

  • Ash Trays

    These are not a particularly popular option in today's non-smoking world. You can get these in bronze or metal.

  • Dealer - Chip Trays

    Chip trays can hold from about 300 to 800 chips. The more expensive chip trays can be lockable.

  • Dealer - Automatic Shuffler

    You can put a professional card shuffler implanted into the table to shuffle cards while using a different deck.

  • Dealer - Bill Slots

    These are built into the table to allow a slot to insert money into the drop box.

  • Dealer - Bill Plungers

    To be used with the bill slots, the bill plunger is used to make sure the bills are properly inserted into drop boxes. These are usually made out of clear acrylic.

  • Dealer - Drop Boxes

    These boxes are to hold the money that people buy in with. You can have one key to open the box and a separate key to secure the box to the table.

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Poker Tables - Build Poker Table

HPG ADMIN on March 1, 2013