My First Poker Table Build Thread (2 Viewers)

[nickmate]

Hey everyone, hope all is well!

Firstly I want to thank all the contributors who have posted table build threads and shared advice over the years - these resources are truely invaluable and gave me the confidence to even consider a project like this with little to no woodworking tools or skills!

So for a bit of context, about 4 months ago I bought a cheap 52" round table off Facebook marketplace and have since been organising weekly tournaments with some of my mates.

Being an old pub league used table I paid $40 and it was in all sorts of disrepair - felt had a heat transferred logo that was flaking off, playing surface foam bunching in areas under felt, MDF swelling from exposure to moisture and the rail held together with duct tape.

Originally my plan was to do a full refurb on the table, strip the felt and reupholster the rail etc. But on closer inspection of the construction it was clear these cheap mass-produced tables can’t really be put back together once they’re taken apart. Additionally, there were jumbo sized cupholders in the playing surface which are absolutely horrible to play around.

So over the Christmas break I began planning and building a custom poker table that I finished just last week!

Planning:

I organise a touring self dealt game that averages 6 players. That is to say each week the game is hosted at a different players house so 1 person transportability and a shape that works for a variety of room sizes was a critical consideration. With the 52" round I was already finding it hard to get the table into my SUV - the table was too wide to fit through the boot, so I would need to run the table upright through the back seats through the rear passenger door.

If I were to make a round table I would likely want size up from 52" in any case, so despite the games being self dealt, the only shape that would work was going to be an oval. I wasn’t really interested in building a two piece table as I wanted the playing surface to be seamless.

Averaging only 6 players per game, I was drawn to the ‘pub’ sized oval tables that a few members have custom built or bought from brands like Gorilla Gaming, and in the end decided to go with a 1700mm x 1000mm (67” x 39”) oval. I Ideally the oval would be wider, however I had to work within the constraints of the boot dimensions of my SUV and any wider the table would not fit between the wheel well bumps.

I’ve read on here that 22” of linear rail per player is generally considered the minimum for player comfort and comparing to the Gorilla Gaming 66” x 44” pub table which has 22.8” of linear rail, my custom finishes at 22.35”, a huge upgrade from the 20.4” provided on the 52" round for an 8-max games.

Trying to visualise the 6 different sizes I was considering:

Finished dimensions on CAD - 1700mm x 1000mm (67” x 39”) with a 130mm (5.12") rail:

As a teen I used to binge watch WSOP highlights on YouTube so aesthetically I’ve always been drawn to the classic green on tan rail aesthetic.

Felt + vinyl mood board:

Whisper vinyl in Camel was what most people seemed to be using however there was no suppliers of Whisper over here and getting some shipped over was price prohibitive. I was however able to get a Whisper sample booklet and used it as a reference against a shitload of other vinyl samples to pick from. In the end I ended with a vinyl called ‘Buckskin’ from a local supplier Daley’s who specialise in auto/marine upholstery supplies.

Materials:

Woodworking Materials (ply, screws, hardware)	$170AUD	~$105USD
Tools (trim router, bits, stapler)	$160AUD	~$100USD
Upholstery materials (rail foam, vinyl, playing surface foam, spray adhesive)	$230AUD	~$145USD
Custom Topper	$90AUD	~$55USD
Slideunder Cupholders	$110AUD	~$70USD
TOTAL:	$760AUD	~$475USD

 

[merkong]

Well done. Love us table builders.

 

[nickmate]

Woodworking:

As with all custom table builds, we start with a few sheets of ply measured out. For the majority of the build I followed buildyourownpokertables.com table plans for their basic oval table design, using two sheets of 2400x1200 19mm structural plywood.

Following “Neo’s Cardroom” table build thread I considered cutting my ovals out freehand with a jigsaw, but when I tried cutting a straight line with my jigsaw I realised I couldn’t even freehand a straight line let alone curves. I opted for the cheapest trim router I could find from Bunnings (local hardware store) along with a straight offcut piece of wood from their scrap bin.

Making the router jig was easy enough, although I would probably pick out some thinner scrap wood if I were to do it again. I had to extend the bit depth by quite a margin for it to cut through the entire sheet, which meant less of the bit was in the collet which I wasn’t thrilled about. I used the plastic router guard as a stencil for the mounting screw holes and used a spade bit to clear out centre hole.

First cut went as well as it could have, I used a 6mm straight cut bit working very slowly over multiple passes cutting 3-4mm at a time.

To save time I used the first oval as a template to rough cut the second sheet of ply with a jigsaw and then screwed both sheets to each other.

I screwed the sheets down through the radius centre points, where my router jig attached to the first sheet. This means once I create a copy out of the second sheet I can use those same holes to mount my jig when I make the interior oval cuts, without needing to measure to find the exact centre of each radius.

Using this edge guide attachment that came with my router over multiple passes I was able to make a 1:1 copy of my first oval.

Interior curves and straights cut using the jig and router:

Quick hit of the top edges with a 6mm rounder bit.

Attached the lip oval to the rail oval with some glue and screws and a quick test fit to wrap up day 4.

Next was to add the T-nuts on to the rail. I used glue and set the nuts into the wood by hand tightening M6 furniture connector bolts using the included Allen key. On the very last nut I ran into issues as the key sockets are not meant for high torque and I stripped a bolt leaving it well and truely stuck. Thankfully I had screw extractor set on hand that worked as intended.

The structural ply I used is a CD grade sheet, meaning both faces have knots and blemishes. I used some wood filler and sanded the base sheet before giving it a quick lick of paint (interior wall paint I had lying around).

 

[nickmate]

Legs:

My original thought was to rip off the legs from the round table and use them on the oval, but not only were the legs pretty beat, they were also sized in away where the legs would overlap and not stow flush when folded up, which would make solo loading into the car a bit of a pain in the ass as the feet could catch on the boot floor.

I figure it might also be a good idea to keep the round table around should I ever get enough players to host an MTT.

Instead I looked around at some leg options online and found they were all priced over $90. Thats when I looked at the foldout picnic table I did most of my woodworking on and thought I might be able to just buy a cheap trestle table and extract the legs from that.

So I found this 4ft table for $33 on the Bunnings website and from the product photos looked like a great way to get folding legs on a budget! The best part is the legs had an offset designed in, so the legs would fold flush onto the table base.

Pulling the legs off only involved removing a couple of screws and I ripped some of the spare ply to use as a support frame.

Mitred and put a subtle roundover on the frame to make it easier to slide the table in and out of the car boot, then added pocket screws and mounted the leg brackets.

Here is the finished construction of the table legs and underside. I had to sand back some paint so the glue between frame and base had wood to adhere to. Also added a spring loaded handle for easier carry and was able to extract the leg clips so the legs stay captive when folded and during loading.

The legs are very sturdy and you can sit at the ends of the table without worrying about smashing your knees into them.

Playing Surface:

Originally I was going to use green SSC, but when I ordered from a local supplier I was not happy with the quality of the material. It was very rough and stiff, the hallmarks of the cheaper China produced SSC. I returned fabric and ironically went direct to a mousepad manufacturer in China.

After playing around with some dimensions and drawing betting lines on the table I settled on a felt design inspired by the Wynn. For the logo I only needed to change two letters to match the name of my poker room, so borrowed the ‘o’ from the Encore logo and dropped the W lower for better visual balance.

Ideally a table this small doesn’t have a betting circle but the logo didn’t look right without it. I settled with a 6mm thick betting line 170mm (6.7”) from the rail.

Final design:

The topper is printed on a very short napped velvety fabric on top of 3mm rubber. I opted for this material over an untextured multispandex as card slide is less of a concern on a table this small and really adds a luxurious feel. You can easily pitch cards from the ends of the table and the added grip means you can deal out a flop dealer style - best of both worlds! The topper will be affixed above a 6mm HD open cell foam - using my mousepad at home I found 3mm rubber alone did not have enough give for easy card peeling and needed something a softer underneath it.

Now that we’ve run a couple games on the table I can say I’m very happy with way the surface plays. It’s a real goldilocks of firmness on the top layer which allows stacking chips high with basically no wobble and stability even if you poke down right next to your chips, but plenty of give to peel and pickup cards. If I could source it I would have used 3mm HD foam as I believe that would still provide enough downward travel and increase stability even more.

 

[nickmate]

Upholstery:

I used spray adhesive and a rolling pin to glue down the playing surface foam and then moved onto the rail foam.

Finding a rail foam comparable to the 65lb foam referenced in almost every build thread was difficult to source over here. Our units of measuring firmness are different so finding a like for like required converting pound-force to newtons. Over here there was only two options, firm or very firm. The firm variant equivalent to a ~43lb foam, while the very firm was equivalent to ~73lb. I decided to go ahead with the very firm as it was closer to the 65lb foam and oddly a bit cheaper as well.

I’m not sure if it was because of the increased firmness but I did find it hard to get the foam to stick to the outside perimeter of the rail. I had to use weights to hold the foam to the rail while the glue set. I also put some painters tape over the T-nuts so glue would not get into the threads.

Next was the rail upholstery. Wow did this suck. The marine vinyl I used was a pretty sturdy 2-way stretch vinyl that took a lot of patience, muscle and staple removal/redo. I followed the guides that are posted here and knew it would be horrible going into it but was I still shocked.

Once I start something I find it very hard to stop, so I set up some lights in the garage and went deep into the night to finish the outside upholstery.

Finished off the inside perimeter the next night and gave it a quick test fit. Also fired up the soldering iron and burnt holes into the playing surface foam for the bolts to pass through from base to rail.

A week later and the topper arrived from China. I was considering glueing it down to the playing surface foam but when I asked for advice was told staples would be adequate.

The factory did not cut the mat perfectly centred hence why it looks short on one end. Not an issue though as this is all hidden by the rail.

Fired up the soldering iron again and this time only made two holes for the two bolts on the ends of the table. I found that there was adequate hold with just the two bolts, cards did not go under the rail in any spots and was enough to centre the rail to the table. I also swapped out the connector bolts to hand bolts for ease of assembly/disassembly, and added a threaded insert on each end of the support frame to store the bolts when disassembled, so they are not loose from the table during storage.

Closing Thoughts:

I am beyond thrilled with how the table turned out - it ticked all the design and problem solving boxes I look for when I jump into these kinds of projects. Again none of this would have been possible without the resources that are on PCF - I’ve drawn inspiration from all the builds on here that I’ve spent hours meticulously staring at and hope some of you can see the fingerprints you have left on the finished product! Any questions let me know, happy to provide answers where I can.

 

[Nymor]

Good job!

 

[4SUMERZ]

Upholstery:

I used spray adhesive and a rolling pin to glue down the playing surface foam and then moved onto the rail foam.

View attachment 1453766

Finding a rail foam comparable to the 65lb foam referenced in almost every build thread was difficult to source over here. Our units of measuring firmness are different so finding a like for like required converting pound-force to newtons. Over here there was only two options, firm or very firm. The firm variant equivalent to a ~43lb foam, while the very firm was equivalent to ~73lb. I decided to go ahead with the very firm as it was closer to the 65lb foam and oddly a bit cheaper as well.

I’m not sure if it was because of the increased firmness but I did find it hard to get the foam to stick to the outside perimeter of the rail. I had to use weights to hold the foam to the rail while the glue set. I also put some painters tape over the T-nuts so glue would not get into the threads.

View attachment 1453765

View attachment 1453767

Next was the rail upholstery. Wow did this suck. The marine vinyl I used was a pretty sturdy 2-way stretch vinyl that took a lot of patience, muscle and staple removal/redo. I followed the guides that are posted here and knew it would be horrible going into it but was still shocked.

Once I start something I find it very hard to stop, so I set up some lights in the garage and went deep into the night to finish the outside upholstery.

View attachment 1453768

View attachment 1453769

Finished off the inside perimeter the next night and gave it a quick test fit. Also fired up the soldering iron and burnt holes into the playing surface foam for the bolts to pass through from base to rail.

View attachment 1453770

View attachment 1453771

View attachment 1453772

A week later and the topper arrived from China. I was considering glueing it down to the playing surface foam but when I asked for advice was told staples would be adequate.

View attachment 1453773

The factory did not cut the mat perfectly centred hence why it looks short on one end. Not an issue though as this is all hidden by the rail.

View attachment 1453775

Fired up the soldering iron again and this time only made two holes for the two bolts on the ends of the table. I found that there was adequate hold with just the two bolts, cards did not go under the rail in any spots and was enough to centre the rail to the table. I also swapped out the connector bolts to hand bolts for ease of assembly/disassembly, and added a threaded insert on each end of the support frame to store the bolts when disassembled, so they are not loose from the table during storage.

View attachment 1453776

View attachment 1453777

Closing Thoughts:

I am beyond thrilled with how this project turned out - it ticked all the design and problem solving boxes I look for when I make things. Again none of this would have been possible without the resources that are on PCF - I’ve drawn inspiration from all the builds that I’ve spent hours meticulously staring at and hope some of you can see the fingerprints you have left on this table! Any questions let me know happy to provide answers where I can.

View attachment 1453778

View attachment 1453779

View attachment 1453780

View attachment 1453781

Well done. Looks fantastic.

 

[foreverdev]

Upholstery:

I used spray adhesive and a rolling pin to glue down the playing surface foam and then moved onto the rail foam.

View attachment 1453766

Finding a rail foam comparable to the 65lb foam referenced in almost every build thread was difficult to source over here. Our units of measuring firmness are different so finding a like for like required converting pound-force to newtons. Over here there was only two options, firm or very firm. The firm variant equivalent to a ~43lb foam, while the very firm was equivalent to ~73lb. I decided to go ahead with the very firm as it was closer to the 65lb foam and oddly a bit cheaper as well.

I’m not sure if it was because of the increased firmness but I did find it hard to get the foam to stick to the outside perimeter of the rail. I had to use weights to hold the foam to the rail while the glue set. I also put some painters tape over the T-nuts so glue would not get into the threads.

View attachment 1453765

View attachment 1453767

Next was the rail upholstery. Wow did this suck. The marine vinyl I used was a pretty sturdy 2-way stretch vinyl that took a lot of patience, muscle and staple removal/redo. I followed the guides that are posted here and knew it would be horrible going into it but was I still shocked.

Once I start something I find it very hard to stop, so I set up some lights in the garage and went deep into the night to finish the outside upholstery.

View attachment 1453768

View attachment 1453769

Finished off the inside perimeter the next night and gave it a quick test fit. Also fired up the soldering iron and burnt holes into the playing surface foam for the bolts to pass through from base to rail.

View attachment 1453770

View attachment 1453771

View attachment 1453772

A week later and the topper arrived from China. I was considering glueing it down to the playing surface foam but when I asked for advice was told staples would be adequate.

View attachment 1453773

The factory did not cut the mat perfectly centred hence why it looks short on one end. Not an issue though as this is all hidden by the rail.

View attachment 1453775

Fired up the soldering iron again and this time only made two holes for the two bolts on the ends of the table. I found that there was adequate hold with just the two bolts, cards did not go under the rail in any spots and was enough to centre the rail to the table. I also swapped out the connector bolts to hand bolts for ease of assembly/disassembly, and added a threaded insert on each end of the support frame to store the bolts when disassembled, so they are not loose from the table during storage.

View attachment 1453776

View attachment 1453777

Closing Thoughts:

I am beyond thrilled with how the table turned out - it ticked all the design and problem solving boxes I look for when I jump into these kinds of projects. Again none of this would have been possible without the resources that are on PCF - I’ve drawn inspiration from all the builds on here that I’ve spent hours meticulously staring at and hope some of you can see the fingerprints you have left on the finished product! Any questions let me know, happy to provide answers where I can.

View attachment 1453778

View attachment 1453779

View attachment 1453780

View attachment 1453781

So clean. I had a hell of a time doing the inside rounds with the rail fabric, it ripped to the point of being slightly visible. It just couldn’t stretch enough. Yours is super clean!

 

[BadCardHaver]

Great job!