♠ PROFESSIONAL-POKER.COM ♠

By Nick Momrick

In the previous articles I’ve discussed game type, rules, regulations, and players. Now that you have everything you need to put together a successful home poker game, it’s time to have some fun with it and spend a little bit of money. If you can create a special poker atmosphere, it will increase the popularity of your home game and everyone will have more fun.

The first thing every poker game should have is a nice set of poker chips. There?s nothing quite like the sound of good poker chips hitting the pot. Cheap plastic chips just don?t produce this same effect. A set of heavy chips are easier to count, handle, and do poker chip tricks with. Visit homepokertourney.com for reviews on the different chips on the market.

Once you have a nice set of chips you?ll need a felt surface to play on, because heavy poker chips make a lot of noise on a hard table surface. There are a few options available here. You can buy a poker table top which simply lays on top of any regular table. These are quick and easy to use, but the green surface tends to rub off easily, creating a mess. You can also buy a manufactured poker table. Both circular and oval tables come in many different sizes so it shouldn?t be hard to find one that suits your situation. I recommend building your own table because it can end up saving you money. This allows you to create the table exactly how you want it. There are even free poker tables plans complete with photos available to help out.

Investing in some KEM playing cards will save you money in the long run. These are the same cards used by casino poker rooms and are 100% plastic. A typical deck runs about $10, but ends up paying for itself over time. Since KEM cards are made of plastic, they last roughly 30 times longer than paper cards. A deck of paper cards is usually between $1 and $2 so you would spend $30 to $60 in the same time you could be using one $10 deck of KEM cards. In addition to saving money, these cards don?t crease like paper cards and can be cleaned with water and a towel.

Two other items you might want to purchase are cut cards and a dealer chip. A cut card is placed on the bottom of the deck when dealing so that players don’t see the bottom card. Instead of buying them, you could tape together two jokers as your cut card. A dealer chip is handy when running a tournament because as players drop out, you might have a dedicated dealer and you’ll need to keep track of which seat is the dealer position. You could use any other object to mark this position, but a real dealer chip is more recognizable.

None of the items I discussed are necessary, but they all add something special to your game. Have run and good luck with your poker game.