Wooden Poker Table Plans

Wooden Poker Table Plans 7,2/10 4236 reviews

This is the 1st part of a multi-part series. View the rest:

Part 1: Plans and Materials

Part 1: Plans and Materials; Part 2: Racetrack; Part 3: Vertical Skirt; Part 4: Subtable and Playing Surface; Part 5: Finishing It Up; This is the first in a series of posts recording my experience building a solid oak, octagon-shaped poker or game table. It will be written as I work on the table, hopefully all within the next few weeks. Since you are starting off with a 4'x8' sheet of wood, you need to first round the corners in the shape of your poker table. To do this you have to measure 24' from the end and 24' from each side and drive a small nail or screw into that spot. The large X in the poker table plans shows where the nail should go. Poker night is the perfect time to catch up with friends and show off a good hand. To provide a handsome game table that's sure to make the guys take your bet—or bluff—more seriously, follow our free card table plans to build a table complete with a felt playing surface, insets for poker chips, and coasters.

This is the first in a series of posts recording my experience building a solid oak, octagon-shaped poker or game table. It will be written as I work on the table, hopefully all within the next few weeks.

Let me be clear: I am not a professional woodworker. I simply enjoy building things as a hobby, and I try to build things I know I’ll use and love. Since my family and I love board and card games, a table like this is a perfect project for me.

I’ll do my best to provide as much detail as I can throughout the process, and I’ll try to take a lot of photos. With that…

The Plans

Whenever I do a project like this, I always try to work with commonly available wood stock sizes and materials, so it’s cost-effective and easy for someone else to replicate. Keeping that in mind, I tend to draw up plans based around this philosophy.

I also decided to buy the pedestal base and legs already made from a great little company in Tennessee called Adams Wood Products. Building something like that is probably beyond my ability, so for a pretty reasonable price, I just had them ship a set to me. It’ll save me a lot of time and, probably, frustration.

To start, the playing surface will be made up of 8 pieces that each look like this:

Once you cut out 8 of them and glue them together, the goal is to end up with something like this:

I’ve made some calculations based on using a 4′×4′ piece of plywood as the table base and determined the following measurements:

I’m not sure of the exact dimensions of the chip holder area or the cup holder hole yet, since I haven’t gotten the cup holders in the mail yet. I’ll wait until then to see what size hole I need. Then, I’ll want to match the cup holder width to the width of the chip holder area, just to make it nice and consistent.

Pro Tip: Order your cup holders, felt, etc. in advance. And don’t trust the manufacturer’s measurements on things like cup holder hole size. Wait until you get the materials in and measure it yourself. I bought a hole cutting drill bit based on the size the manufacturer gave and the cup holders didn’t fit! Lesson learned.

You’ll notice I made the chip holder area closer to the inner edge. The reason for this is that I’ll be adding a bullnose edge and a vertical skirt underneath this layer, so I need a little extra breathing room. Here’s a cross section of what I mean:

This is all I’m going to use for planning purposes, though there’s a lot more going on in my head. I’ll try and expand upon that as I go through the process of the build.

The Materials

Here’s what the final materials list ended up being:

Lumber

4 – 1″×8″×4′ Red Oak board (outer table surface)
4 – 1″×4″×4′ Red Oak board (vertical skirt)
4 – 1″×2″×4′ Red Oak board (bullnose)
1 – 1″×12″×2′ Red Oak board (pedestal mount)
2 – 4′×4′×1/2″ Red Oak plywood (playing surface and sub-surface)
1 – Wood Pedestal
4 – Pedestal Legs

Woodworking Poker Table Plans

Hardware

4-pack of adjustable furniture feet
10 – 1/4″-20 5/8″ T-Nuts
10 – 1/4″-20 3/4″ Bolts
1 Quart Stain
1 Quart Polyurethane

For the stain, I’m using Minwax English Chestnut for the color. For the polyurethane, I’m using Minwax Fast-Drying Polyurethane in Satin finish.

Felt, Foam, etc.

48″×100″ Green Velveteen Fabric
48″×48″×1/4″ thick Closed-cell High Density Foam (goes right under the felt)
8 – Large Stainless Steel drop-in cup holders

Next Steps: The racetrack

Stay tuned. The next step will cover shaping the 8 pieces for the table top and fitting them together.

With a felt top, chip compartments, and built-in drink coasters, this poker table is a sure bet.

What could be more enjoyable than pulling a chair up to this classic poker table for a game of cards with a few friends? But that will come later. First, you’ll get to take on the challenge of building the table. With all the features you see above — felt playing surface, builtin coasters, veneered trim, and the great-looking pedestal base, you might think this project would be pretty difficult to build. And I’ll admit, there are a few things here that will expand your skills. But even with all the extras, it goes together surprisingly easy. To streamline the job, I used premade parts to build the base. This allows you to focus your efforts on the all-important top. You’ll find the key here is simply taking on the job in small steps. And the table doesn’t need to be limited to poker games. Add the optional wood cover, and it’s a great table for any use.

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What You Get:

18 pages of step-by-step instructions
80 full-color photos and illustrations
Cutting Diagram and Materials List
Hardware and Supplies Sources

Note: After your purchase, you will receive an email containing a PDF attachment of your purchased plan, as well as instructions for logging in to download the plan and access any other associated files and videos, which will all be located on this page.

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Imperial Plans

The United States Customary System of Units (USCS or USC), more commonly referred to as the English or Imperial system, is the standard set of units for our plans. It uses inches and feet for measurement. This is the one you probably want if you are in the United States, and it is the one we have traditionally offered on this website.

Metric Plans

The International System of Units (SI), more commonly referred to as the metric system, is the alternative set of units that we have available for some of our plans. It uses millimeters, centimeters, and meters for measurement. This is the one you probably want if you are outside the United States. These plans are provided by our business partner, Australian Woodsmith, and are based on the original Woodsmith plan. However, dimensions and other elements of the plan may vary between the metric and standard versions. Be sure to double-check the plan before building.

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