TomatoGrass
Sitting Out
Hello all! I have been around the forums just poking my head in here and there. I thought it might be a good place to post my journey with the ESPN LED poker table.
Two years ago, I decided to start hosting my own games. This started in my tiny one bedroom apartment with one table of guys from work. I knew nothing about any forums or anything, so I just ventured into the wilderness on my own. Without a big budget, I opted for the ESPN LED poker table, which at the time was $199 from Walmart (still a STEAL in my opinion). Below is where I started:
As you can see, I was using just simple Monte Carlo chips and Copag cards. The blue LED lights completely washed out the chip colors, but at the time I didn’t care. It looked cool to me.
So the game roster started growing and so did my passion for running a game. Early on, I made three rather important upgrades to my table. First, I purchased Enginstar battery packs to run the lights from a battery (under the table) instead of using an extension cord.
Next, I simultaneously upgraded the cup holders to deeper ones, and I changed the blue LEDs to RGB. This allowed me to change to a white color for 95% of the time and kept chip colors from being washed out.
Upgrading the cupholders involved using a 3 inch Hole Dozer drill bit, as well as using an angle grinder to trim up the bar on the bottom of the table.
Now to be honest, I ran with this setup for over a year. I would recommend anyone who has these tables to at least do these three upgrades at a minimum. They are low cost and low effort, but change the experience immensely. I even began running two table games with two identical setups like this.
Recently, I became a little careless when moving a table, and the felt ripped. I decided it was time to refelt these tables anyways just to see what it would be like.
The only real difference between these and the Barrington tables is the small piece of wood under each rail to mount the LEDs. These pieces of wood are held in by screws/staples (?), and the wood can be removed with a flathead screwdriver. I then just hammered the metal pieces sideways until they were flush with the wood.
Now I’m a complete amateur, and when I put the new suited speed cloth on, I was more worried about it being TIGHT than exactly straight. The lines are a little wonky but I’m not really concerned.
To diffuse the LEDs, I came across these 4’ zip ties I had purchased a year ago. It just so happens that each half of the table has an inside perimeter of almost EXACTLY 8 feet. So I trimmed the edges off these zip ties, and used 6 per half of the table (3 ties thick, two sections to cover 8 feet). They are the PERFECT height between the table and the rail, and the white plastic gives a great diffusing effect to the LEDs.
And there you have it. A really tight budget upgrade of a budget table, turned into something that the guys and I enjoy playing on!
So I guess this wouldn’t be a PCF thread if I didn’t mention what chips we use…
All of my chips are from BRPro. I can’t say enough good things about them, and I love ceramic chips.
We run T30,000 starting stack tournaments and $1/2 cash games. For tournaments, I have semi custom sets of Tiki Kings and Dia De Los Muertos chips. The guys love these.
For cash games, we have one set of full custom ceramics and another coming soon.
Also, I can’t forget to mention that Desjgn cards are by far the crowd favorite of our game.
Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day!!
Two years ago, I decided to start hosting my own games. This started in my tiny one bedroom apartment with one table of guys from work. I knew nothing about any forums or anything, so I just ventured into the wilderness on my own. Without a big budget, I opted for the ESPN LED poker table, which at the time was $199 from Walmart (still a STEAL in my opinion). Below is where I started:
As you can see, I was using just simple Monte Carlo chips and Copag cards. The blue LED lights completely washed out the chip colors, but at the time I didn’t care. It looked cool to me.
So the game roster started growing and so did my passion for running a game. Early on, I made three rather important upgrades to my table. First, I purchased Enginstar battery packs to run the lights from a battery (under the table) instead of using an extension cord.
Next, I simultaneously upgraded the cup holders to deeper ones, and I changed the blue LEDs to RGB. This allowed me to change to a white color for 95% of the time and kept chip colors from being washed out.
Upgrading the cupholders involved using a 3 inch Hole Dozer drill bit, as well as using an angle grinder to trim up the bar on the bottom of the table.
Now to be honest, I ran with this setup for over a year. I would recommend anyone who has these tables to at least do these three upgrades at a minimum. They are low cost and low effort, but change the experience immensely. I even began running two table games with two identical setups like this.
Recently, I became a little careless when moving a table, and the felt ripped. I decided it was time to refelt these tables anyways just to see what it would be like.
The only real difference between these and the Barrington tables is the small piece of wood under each rail to mount the LEDs. These pieces of wood are held in by screws/staples (?), and the wood can be removed with a flathead screwdriver. I then just hammered the metal pieces sideways until they were flush with the wood.
Now I’m a complete amateur, and when I put the new suited speed cloth on, I was more worried about it being TIGHT than exactly straight. The lines are a little wonky but I’m not really concerned.
To diffuse the LEDs, I came across these 4’ zip ties I had purchased a year ago. It just so happens that each half of the table has an inside perimeter of almost EXACTLY 8 feet. So I trimmed the edges off these zip ties, and used 6 per half of the table (3 ties thick, two sections to cover 8 feet). They are the PERFECT height between the table and the rail, and the white plastic gives a great diffusing effect to the LEDs.
And there you have it. A really tight budget upgrade of a budget table, turned into something that the guys and I enjoy playing on!
So I guess this wouldn’t be a PCF thread if I didn’t mention what chips we use…
All of my chips are from BRPro. I can’t say enough good things about them, and I love ceramic chips.
We run T30,000 starting stack tournaments and $1/2 cash games. For tournaments, I have semi custom sets of Tiki Kings and Dia De Los Muertos chips. The guys love these.
For cash games, we have one set of full custom ceramics and another coming soon.
Also, I can’t forget to mention that Desjgn cards are by far the crowd favorite of our game.
Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day!!
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