Setting
up the Home Poker Game
It’s your turn to host the weekly poker game and
this will be your debut performance. Now, you could
just move the flowers off the dining room table,
search for the deck of casino cards you lifted from
the hotel room mini-bar, and dust off the plastic
poker chips your grandmother gave you 20 years ago.
Or, you could do things the right way.
Home games are affordable get-togethers that serve as
bonding experiences for friends and neighbors. And
trying to supplement your income isn’t a bad idea
either. So, if you’re the host, make sure you have
the right gear to set the mood.
If you’re in charge of organizing the big game and you
want to set up a professional atmosphere, you have to
address issues like: what type and how many poker
chips do I need; what size poker table do I need and
where can I find the felt; where can I find poker
rules; and even where do I get a dealer button. A look
at the essentials.
Chips-ahoy – Since poker’s popularity has shot up
like a rocket in the past few years, there’s no
shortage of retailers, off and on-line, that are
stocking their shelves with chips. When it’s your
time to buy, you will need about 500 chips to host a
10-player poker tournament. This ensures that each
player will have enough chips so that you’re not
always making change from the bank.
Chips come in what seems like an infinite
number of weights, sizes, styles and colors. There are
clay, ceramic, plastic and metallic insert chips.
What’s right for you depends on your style and bank
account. You can pay anywhere from nine cents to $1.29
per chip. At gamblinghabit.com,
you can get 500 12-gram chips that have the feel of
clay casino chips for $120 before shipping. At buypokerchips.com,
you can get the high-end archetype casino line for
$569 per 500 chips. These chips aren’t lined with
gold, but they are the exact full-color design and
single composite construction chips that many Vegas
casinos are turning to because of their ability to
display high-resolution graphics. You can even try
your Brookstone store in the mall and pick up a poker
set that includes 400 11.5-gram chips, two decks of
cards, and a dealer button for $125.
What a card – Bicycle and Bee are probably the two
brands of playing cards you’re most familiar with.
They’ve been around forever. However, these coated
paper cards will begin to stick, rip and tear after
several games, so make sure you have more than deck,
which cost about a $1.50. For a higher-end card, the
plastic playing cards are more durable, can be washed
and will withstand the rigors of tournament poker
games and spilled beer. You want cards that won’t
rip, crease or tear and at $4-$8 per deck, these
won’t. Some popular brands include KEM Cards, Gemaco
and COPAG.
Table manners –
A genuine casino poker table is for the host
who’s really serious about this game. Like with
chips, there’s an endless supply of Internet
retailers where you can purchase a table. At cardroomsupply.com,
a Texas Hold’em table is priced from $500 (washable
felt, folding steel legs and 70 pounds) to $4,500
(wood, chrome and cast iron). Shipping charges can be
steep, so make sure you shop around. You can also
build your own table at a fraction of the cost, but
have to know your way around the tool shed. Websites
like PCPotato.com,
side-pot.com and
poker.com can help.
If buying or building is not your cup of tea, turn
your dining room into a card room buy purchasing table
padding at the local department store. With the
plastic side up, tape it down underneath the table,
leaving no wrinkles. Then top it off with billiard or
poker cloth.
Button up – If you don’t buy a set that includes
a dealer button, you can purchase one separately for
as little as $5 to as much as $30. The buttons, which
designate the dealer in Hold’em, look like a hockey
puck with the word “dealer” stamped on it and are
usually made of plastic.
