Home-made poker table

A word about poker.

I've discovered poker thanks to aenemated and gerald, while chatting on a designer community related board called Yayhooray!. I got interested by the general thrill this game gave the players, and the apparent simplicity of the rules, hiding a way more complex background, such as temper control, tactics, and the ability to compete (and win) against pretty much anyone. I loved the fact that you could have fun by playing a simple card game that becomes more and more engaging if you put your mind to it.

I quickly learned the basic rules, found on a french website called Club Poker. This website was the key to pretty much everything. It teached me not only the rules, but most importantly a unique feeling about the game. Poker is what you make of it. If you want to have fun, you will. But if the money becomes the center of your way of playing, it becomes a cold and bitter strategy game, and in the end you don't even know why you're playing.

I've gathered a small group of friends, teached them the rules, and we started to have a week game together. Rapidly, I've tried to offer my players the best conditions for playing, so I've bought some diced poker chips, and wrote "official" rules at our table.

Things were going great, but I've decided to take another step: a poker table.

The table.

The original idea of that table came from Genk, a member of clubpoker's board, who designed his own table (you can see it here). I thought his table was very fine, but I wanted some extra features.

Before we start, let's define the table and the material needed to build it:

The table dimensions and form will be a dodecagon of 140cm in diameter. It shall have basic features: a thick edge for arm resting and to avoid cards/chips to fall off, and an "off board" area to store chips, cards, drinks...

The table will be only a table top. Since I live in a small appartment, and I'm not playing 24/7, I wanted a simple system I could store somewhere. Therefore, not only it will be a table top, but it will also be foldable.

The table shall not be expensive to make. You can find poker tables on the internet for 200/300 EUR, the one I wished to make was at first supposed to cost less than 100 EUR, but because of the dimensions I've chosen, it was less than 150 EUR.

Material used:

Two laminate plates of 1400*70*10mm.
5m of cleat, dimensions 30*10mm.
5m of rounded cleat for the edge, dimension 27*3mm.
A couple of piano hinges.
1m² of carpet rug.
Varnish.
Nails.
Water-based glue.
Wood glue.

About the playing area. I've chosen simple carpet rug because it's cheaper and easier to glue to the table.

At first, the table was supposed to contain cup holders, but I've finally dropped that idea because the risk of breaking a glass was too high, and if I had used real cup holders, the table would have been unfoldable.

I also wanted to decorate the playing area with gold paint using a pochoir technique, but after several tries, it was obvious the result would not have been perfect. The paint is not shiny, and it's easaly scratchable.

I. Let's draw!

First, I've made a simple blueprint of the table to have a general idea on how to proceed.

Then I've drawn on the two laminate plates the cutting lines, using a simple cord and a ruler.

II. Let's cut!

After drawing the lines, I've used an electric saw to cut one of the laminate plates, and used the cut one to trace the lines on the second one and cut it too. This way, they are perfectly simetrical. Then I've soften the two big laminate plates in order to allow the varnish to penetrate the wood (it doesn't show on the photo bellow).

Then I've soften one of the edge of the cleat to make it more comfortable for the players, and cut them using the alignment between the center of the table and the edges. This was pretty tricky as the angles of my table are not 100% acurate and I had to adjust every cut part one by one.

III. Let's fix!

Next is the fixing part. I've glued the cleat on the edge of the table using simple wood glue, and nailed them from the bottom. (in the photo bellow the table is shown upside-down). As you can see there's a difference in the wood patterns. I'll be using the rounded cleat to uniform this.

The first cleats are in place.

Now time for the outter edge. Not only this part makes the whole edge comfortable for the player's arms, but as I said earlier it's also a great way to hide the differences between the two kind of woods used.

The two parts of the table are now made. I've put the piano hindges to check it could fold easely and be sure the cleat was constant all the way around the table.

The table now has its final shape.

IV. Let's varnish!

In order to put the varnish, I've separated the two parts of the table, and applied some duct tape to mark the limit between the felt and the wooden part. It needs to be done as the varnish would make the glue unstable.

I've put three layers of varnish, in order to have a nice color, and protect the wood. Between each layers, I've soften the wood to make it real smooth.

V. Let's glue!

After fixing the whole thing again, I've cut the carpet. I've used duct tape again to mark the cutting lines, and used a sharp blade. The "glueing" part was made easely, using neoprene glue. Once dry, I used the blade to make the final cut, and made some tweeking here and there.

VI. Voila!

My table is finally finished.

VII. Thanks to

Laurent, Olivier, and all the members of Club Poker, my friends for the good laughs when we play (they even have nicknames now: Mr Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Jeff la Chatte, Silencio...) but most of all, a big thanks to my dad (what would we do without a handyman daddy??) :)