10 Man Poker Table Plans
by Gwood

Introduction

Hello my friends,
These instructions will guide you through building your own 10 man Texas Hold'em poker table. Features include stainless steel cup holders, a stained 7" spruce racetrack, a padded rail, and the padded playing surface covered in speed cloth, (spin the cards a bit and they float like a hovercraft). From start to finish this project took 1.5 months working lazily on the weekends. Total cost roughly $450 CAN.

This is my second table and my goal this time was quality. I decided not to cut any corners in hopes for the ultimate playing experience. I came close but there are a few things I'd improve for my next table which I will highlight in the instructions. I suggest skimming the guide once and familiarizing yourself with the process before starting. Have fun!

Props to Mark Junnel's guide which I referred to countless times (http://www.junell.cc/pokertable/index.htm). It is recommended to follow the steps in order.

Shopping List

Tools

• Jigsaw
• Drill
• Electric staple gun
• Pencil, ruler and tape measure
• Wood clamps
• Serrated knife or electric knife (like what you use for cutting turkey), and a razor or scissors

Materials & Supplies

• 3 sheets of 3/4" plywood
  • 2 sheets of cheap plywood for the baseboard and padded rail. I got 3/4" spruce for $35 CAN ea.
  • 1 high quality sheet of plywood for the race track. I chose Maple @ $65 CAN
• 1" foam for rail: 104" x 56"
• Vinyl for rail: 104" x 56"
• 1/4" High density foam for playing surface: 55" x 108"
• Poker felt or 'Speed cloth': 55" x 108"
  • I bought my poker speed cloth here
• 8-10 Cup holders
  • I used 10 regular sized stainless steel cup-holders. Jumbo cup-holders are also available
  • I bought my cup-holders here
• Sandpaper (various grits, i.e., 80, 120, 250)
• Polyurethane and staining cloth
• Spray adhesive
• 4 of matching bolts (1.5" long), washers, nuts and 3-pronged T-Nuts for attaching center-piece to base. (Mak sure you have the right size drill bit.)
• Duct tape
• Wood glue
• Dusk mask (optional)

Cutting the Plywood

Tools & Ingredients

• Your plywood!
  • 2 sheets of cheap plywood. I got 3/4" spruce for $35 CAN ea. Used for the padded rail and base.
  • 1 sheet of high quality 3/4" pre-sanded plywood for the rail skirt, race track and center piece. I chose Maple @ $65 CAN
  • Note: the only visible portion of the nice sheet of plywood will be a 5" wide oval which will start 4" from the edge of the plywood; try to find a sheet of plywood that has no defects in this area. My piece of Maple had beautiful wavy grain and it turned out great after staining.
  • Don't use MDF
• pencil, ruler, tape measure, tack nail
• string or piece of wood to trace the circles
• clamps or a friend to hold the wood
• jigsaw

6 "laps" will be made in total. Only one of the cuts will be visible on the finished table, we'll do this last using the finest blade you have, hopefully by this point you'll be warmed up ;) Try to keep the jigsaw moving at a constant rate, stopping or slowing down will result in a bumpy cut.

A. Creating the top of your Rail (crappy plywood sheet #1)

Measure 24" inward from all 3 sides and make a center dot at each end. Hammer in a nail and use a string or piece of wood to trace a curve that touches all 3 sides of the plywood. I used a piece of wood that I drilled 2 holes in, one for around the nail and one to hold the pencil, it took a bit more time to prepare but makes drawing the lines a breeze. The padded rail is 4" wide. Using the same center-nail you can measure 4" from your curve or edge of the plywood and create the inner arc of the rail. Do this at each end. Finally, create straight lines for the inner-sides of your rail.

Once you have your rail marked you can cut around the outside line rounding the four corners. Don't worry about small mistakes since this will eventually covered in foam and vinyl. Carefully lay this oval on your nice sheet of plywood and trace it. We want 2 identical ovals. On the nice sheet of plywood, mark a 24" reference point at each end, just like we did for the first cut.

Set the nice sheet aside and continue cutting the crappy piece: the inner cut requires a pilot hole, drill a hole on the center-side of the inner line so you can fit your jigsaw blade in.

CONGRATULATIONS, you now have the top piece of your Padded Rail

B. Cutting a Skirt: the bottom piece for your Rail (nice plywood)

Before you cut this piece of wood we need to mark it, if we don't mark it we'll have to waste time putting the puzzle pieces back together. On the bottom (bad side), I drew a large square at one end and a circle at the other, make them about 1 foot in size. Now flip it over to the good side.

You already have the outside oval traced, now we'll trace two more inner ovals, (on the good side), to mark the Skirt and Racetrack (use your 24" center point to get the arcs):
Measure 1.5" from the outside edge of the plywood: marking the oval for the inside of the Skirt
Measure 9" from the outside edge of the plywood: this will be the inside of the Racetrack, this cut will be visible so make your line smooth. This will leave you with a 7.5" Racetrack, 5" of it will be visible and the remaining 2.5" will be covered by the Rail.

Round the corners then cut the thin 1.5" Skirt and set it aside, this skirt along with the rail that previously cut will form your Padded Rail.

C. Cutting the poker table Base (crappy plywood sheet #2)

Lay the center piece that we cut the skirt off of, (the last cut we made), on your other uncut sheet of crappy plywood and trace the oval. A rough blade would be suitable for this cut. This forms the base of the poker table that we will attach the legs to. We're making it 1.5" smaller than the rail so that it isn't seen or touched by the players. You can set the base piece aside for now.

D. Cutting Racetrack (nice plywood)

This is the important cut!

I don't want to scare you, but this cut will be visible when the table is complete so stay focused and try not to stop often. Use your finest blade. If it's the first time using the fine blade, test it out on a scrap piece of wood to see how it handles.

We'll need to drill a hole for the blade. Make the hole on the inside of the center piece so that it just barely touches your line. The centerpiece will be covered in foam and felt so the hole won't be seen. Keep in mind that the inner 5" of the Racetrack will be stained and visible so be careful not to scratch or dent the wood. If your jigsaw is rough put some masking tape over the base to prevent scratches.

Make the cut and set the Racetrack and Centerpiece aside. You're done cutting for now so go crack a cold one... or if you're feeling ambitious, start installing the poker table table legs.

Mounting the Legs

Tools & Ingredients

• Your table legs (any large hardware store sells them)
• pencil, ruler
• screwdriver, 1/2" screws
• optional: jigsaw with metal cutting blade, to shorten table legs by 2"

Since we have 3 sheets of plywood stacked up the playing surface ends up feeling too high, I am 6'3". I ended up cutting 2" off of the legs and now the table is at a more comfortable height for playing on. I highly recommend you do the same before attaching the legs. Use a metal blade on your jigsaw. Be careful friend.

The legs will probably come with instructions. This step is pretty easy, take a bit of time to center the legs. My instructions told me not to place the legs more than 1 foot from the end. I tried it like the instructions said first but there was no room for my (human) legs, so I moved the table legs in more towards the center, (see image for approximate distance). The table is perfectly stable and I don't bump the table legs anymore and spill everyone's beer, oops, I forgot I have stainless steel cup-holders to prevent that. Screw in the legs, stand it up. Now you have a poker table base which will double as a work bench!

Building the Rail

Tools & Ingredients

• Wood glue
• electric screwdriver
• 1 1/4" screws
• wood clamps

The 1" skirt goes underneath the 4" rail with the good side facing up. Make sure that the bottom of the skirt is the bad side of the piece of plywood, (the side that we marked with shapes earlier). If you attach the skirt with the wrong side facing up, it won't fit properly around the racetrack, i.e., BIG PROBLEM. Just to make it clear, the part of the skirt that touches the rail should be the top or "good side". Glue together and add a few screws and set aside to dry.

Attaching the center-piece to the base

Tools & Ingredients

• Drill
• duck tape
• wood clamps or a friend to hold the wood
• bolts (width matching your nuts and washer, length = 1.5"), washers, 3-pronged T-Nuts, and nuts x4
• My bolts were 5/8th inch diameter

We'll be installing 3-pronged T-Nuts into your center-piece so that you can screw in 4 bolts from underneath to attach it to the base. Take your racetrack and center-piece and lay them on the base in the final position you'd like them to be. Now drill four holes for your bolts through both the center-piece and base, (make the holes a bit wider than your bolts so it's easier to line-up). Now create a roughly 1/4" to 1/8" deep indent around each hole for sinking the T-Nuts into. Hammer in the T-Nuts and then screw in a bolt from below to make sure they are lined up properly. Cover the center-piece nuts with a strip of duct tape so players won't notice the indent.

You're center-piece is now secure! Lay the racetrack and rail on it for a preview of what's to come and proceed to the next step.

Installing the Cup-holders, 'Endurance Challenge'

Tools & Ingredients

• Jigsaw with a blade suited for sharp curves
• pencil
• wood clamps or a friend to hold the wood

With the center piece bolted in and racetrack and rail in place you'll have a good idea of how the finished table will look, this helps you plan the locations of your cup holders. You want to center the cup-holders in the exposed 5" of your racetrack. I believe my cup-holders ended up with a 3/4" gap between the cup holder lip and the inside edge of the racetrack. Take some time and space out your cup holders then mark them by tracing a circle around the base. You could also cutout a circle as a template and use it to trace. Once you're done marking, take off the rail and center piece and clamp down the racetrack in preparation for cutting the holes.

IMPORTANT CUTS.
Make your first cut well inside of the line, anything that goes too far might not be covered by the cup-holder and will not look good. Test the fit of the cup-holder, you want it to be TIGHT, if it just barely fits then it's perfect, I have to hammer most of them in with my palm. If it doesn't fit, sit the cup-holder on top and mark the places where you need to widen it with a pencil, then trim. If you get tired of cutting take a break, a mistake here would be regrettable.

Done? Ok, now put the center-piece back on and screw it in, then lay the racetrack around it to determine the final position of the cup-holders. Trace a circle on the base for each one. You can cut out the 10 circles on the base a little quicker, make them 1/2" larger than the circle you traced. The gap will only be visible from the bottom. Drink a beer.

Sanding & staining the racetrack

Tools & Ingredients

• Sandpaper (various grits, i.e., 80, 120, 250)
• Polyurethane and staining cloth

I have no experience with this so I followed the directions on the label of the stainer. Sand with the grain starting with the roughest grit and apply light and even coats of poly in between. The first sanding will take a while. Make sure you get all the dust off before each coat. I did 4 coasts and my final coat only required a very light sanding, it turned out great. Let it dry a few hours between each coat.

Optionally you could try staining your wood if that's the look you're going for. Personally, I like wood grain.

Padding & covering the rail

Tools & Ingredients

• Your rail
• 1" foam for rail: 104" x 56"
• Vinyl for rail: 104" x 56"
• staple gun, (preferably electric), and staples. I used 1/4" heavy duty staples.
• 3M Spray-on adhesive
• serated knife or turkey knife for cutting the foam
• black felt for marking foam
• scissors for trimming fabric

First the foam.
Lay down your sheet of foam and then lay the rail face-down on top. Make sure you have at least 2" extra foam around all sides. Lift the rail onto one side, spray it with spray adhesive then stick it back to the foam. While this is drying we can trace our lines. We want 1" extra on the inside and 1 3/4" extra around the outside, the excess will wrap around to pad the edges of our rail. Once you've marked your lines you can cut the foam with a serated knife, (a sharp bread knife will work), or an electric turkey cutter.

Then the Vinyl
Lay the vinyl face down and then lay the rail with foam face down on top. Make sure you've got at least 4 inches all the way around. First we will staple the outside of the rail. PULL AS HARD AS YOU CAN, the harder you pull the "tighter" your rail is going to look. Howerver hard you start pulling at the start you have to maintain that enthusiasm the whole time; I slacked off a bit near the end of my rail and the result was a few minor wrinkles, no biggy though. Staple to the underside all the way around. The fabric in the middle should be tight, when your done you can trim the excess.

For the inside first make a cut down the middle and then make radial cuts as shown in the images, being careful not to come less than 4" from the rail. The strips we are making make stapling the vinyl much easier. Once your strips are done you can start stapling, start with the rounded ends as they are hardest and again... PULL WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT. When your done trim the excess and voila!, a padded rail.

Preparing the playing surface

Tools & Ingredients

• Your center piece
• 1/4" High density foam for playing surface: 55" x 108"
• Poker felt or 'Speed cloth': 55" x 108"
• 3M Spray-on adhesive
• sharp knife or scissors

First the foam.
Spray your center piece with spray adhesive and then roll out the foam on top of it being careful that there are no creases. Give this 5+ mins to harden. Now you can use a sharp knife and trim along the edge, it looks good so far doesn't it.

The fabric.
Put your center piece face up on the base. You can mist a very light coat of adhesive on your center piece, this will help prvent the fabric from wrinkling when people reach for chips. Carefully roll out the fabric onto the center piece while watching for wrinkles, (face up obviously). Now you can start stapling the fabric to the edge of the center piece. *IMPORTANT*staple on the lower half of the edge of the center piece, if you staple too high the staples might be visible above the racetrack. I like to do a few staples on one corner, then go to the opposite site and PULL TIGHT then do a few and continue like that so the fabric is evenly stretched. This part isn't too hard, trim it off when your done. OMFG you are almost done your EPIC POKER TABLE and soon you will be the envy of the town.

If you've followed the steps in order, YOU'RE DONE! CONGRATULATIONS and good luck at the table!

Finished Pictures