Finding a good card table is a daunting task without breaking the
budget, especially when one has specific features in mind. One
summer, my friends and I decided to build a poker table since all
the retail tables didn’t suit your tastes. We were avid poker players,
and we wanted to make the experienceas Las Vegas-like as we could.
The most important part to the table was the planning, but in terms
of construction the key elements to our table was the table itself,
the cup holders, the surface and the arm rests. However, all of
the features of the table are for naught if the table isn’t designed
well.

Like a well-written essay, a poker table must have a design. You
can’t start from scratch and have a prize-winning table worthy of
playing with friends. Step one of building a respectable table is
to design it well. The most important thing about a table is its
size. The table should be constructed to comfortably fit as many
people as you can expect to in on the pot. In our case, the table
comfortably seated from four to six. Any more than that and the
spacing was cramped, any less and you’d need a telescopic arm to
pick up cards. The most difficult kind of table to make would be
an oval while the easiest would be a rectangle but what I recommend
is just to curve the corners on a square piece of board like a pool
table. Aside from shape and size, you may wish to incorporate some
other features. Cup holders were a must for us, as well as armrests,
and we decided to use decorative tacks to give the table that extra
look of class. So now that you know what you want out of your table,
time to start building one!

The first step in making a poker table is the construction of the
table itself. Your design should be relatively simple since you want
to make as few mistakes as possible in cutting it. Home Depot is an
excellent source of eight foot by four foot boards, and since that
is a generous size, I’d recommend cutting two feet off the length to
give you a nice six by four foot board. As for the type of board, it
was recommended to us to go with pine, but we opted for high density
particleboard. Poker games can get rowdy very quickly the last thing
you need is for the table to collapse mid-hand. As for the design of
the table, just pencil out the desired shape. Simply, set a center
point and tie a pencil to a string in order to draw neat curves. Once
you have your shape penciled in, a jigsaw will easily remove the
unwanted parts. Now that your board is starting to look like a
table, it is time to add the surface and any built-in features you
might like.

In Las Vegas, all of the card tables have drop boxes to safely store
money in the table itself, as well as cup holders to avoid spills on
the fabric, which is tough to clean. Even the most hardcore poker
players however will not usually have a drop-box in their tables, but
cup holders are a must. If you want to create a lot of work for
yourself, you can include the cup holders in the armrest, but that’s
very difficult to get right. Our solution was to just put them in the
table itself. You can order stainless steel cup holders from a variety
of gambling stores, but we found Home Depot saved our skins yet again.
Some plumbing pipe with a cap works beautifully. Although it seems
simple you need to err on the side caution with your holes being too
small, for if they’re too large, the cups will fall through and the
table is essentially ruined. Simply measure the dimensions and cut
them out with a jigsaw. If they are too small, just sand out the edges
until the cup holders squeeze in nicely and aren’t going to fall out
the bottom. Glue works very well to secure them, as well as
reinforcement like chicken wire stapled to the underside of the table.
Once you’ve got your cup holders in place, you should think about
surfacing your table as well as the armrests.

The surface of your table should be soft and smooth so that the cards
can glide easily across it. We used velvet for our surface and it
worked extremely well and it added a regal look. As for affixing the
surface, a staple gun is a necessity. Just pull the fabric taught and
staple it to the underside of the table. If you have cup holders, just
take a knife and poke a hole through the fabric, without actually
removing it, where your cup holders will be. If you want your table to
be all the more luxurious, you can put a layer of foam or even carpet
underlay below the velvet to make it extra soft. Just use glue and
staples to keep the foam fixed to the table. After you surface the
table, it’s time to put on the armrests. Armrests are difficult, but
they are definitely worth it. For the arm rests, I’d suggest a fabric
like vinyl, although fake leather works nicely too. As for the
dimensions, I’d recommend the armrests be the outer six inches of your
table. This means the fabric should be cut at three times the width,
since it’s going to be filled with stuffing and you want some slack to
staple below the table. Remember to lay the fabric with the side you
want facing up to be placed flat on the table. Staple the fabric down,
and the excess over top of the staples and fix it to the bottom of the
table. Then you can stuff the hollow armrest. Because this process is
very tricky, I suggest making the armrest into sections rather than
trying to do it all at once. Also, make sure you staple all of the
armrest to the table before you decide to work on any one section. The
armrest will look the least professional of your table, and it took us
the longest to complete, but as long as it prevents sore elbows, it
should be considered a job well done.

The table can be considered a job well done if it comes out looking
even slightly professional. As for three men who sat down one weekend
and decided to build a table, our spur-of-the-moment idea turned out
fairly well. The armrests are the most difficult stage, especially
stuffing the last section, but they are definitely worth the trouble.
As long as you spend time planning, your table should come out well.
Just remember, even if your table doesn’t come out perfect, if it’s
usable it’s something to be proud of. Building something from scratch
is much more gratifying than just going out and buying a factory made
card table and it will be more rewarding when it is time to sit down
and play.