With the entire world seemingly in financial meltdown, WPT Poker takes a look at the recession-busting poker gear that’ll bolster your home game without breaking your wallet.
Official WPT Cards (4 Packs)
While KEM and Fournier decks of cards might be a little out of reach for the fiscally challenged or festively impoverished among us, there’s no reason why your home game should go without a pack of quality plastic cards. Made by US card-makers BEE, this four-pack of WPT-branded playing cards have an excellent snap and shuffle at the price and will easily retain their shape and condition until more buoyant financial times.
£12.00 (4-pack box - available in blue or black); squirrelpoker.co.uk
Nuts Poker Table
If you’re looking for something a little bit more serious than your standard fold-out table top but don’t want to break the bank by splashing out on an expensive stand alone beauty, you’ll be hard pushed to find a better budget compromise than the Nuts Poker Table. Boasting most of the features that you would expect from a table at twice the price, the Nuts Poker Table comfortably seats up to eight players and is made from the highest quality materials, including a padded, wipe-clean vinyl surround and cushioned felt fabric playing surface. When not in use, the table folds away for easy storage, making it the perfect playing base for your weekly sit ‘n’ go.
£89.90 (incl. free delivery); mastersgames.com
Folding Poker Table Top
While a stand-alone poker table is definitely the way to go for any discerning poker player partial to hosting a regular home game, sometimes the simple factors of space and budget constraints mean that a full-scale table just isn’t a viable option. However, that doesn’t mean that you should go without a decent playing surface – and these budget fold-out table tops provide a functional and affordable solution. Available in octagonal or oval shapes to suit all standard table types, these high-quality playing surfaces seat eight players each and pack away into a handy carry-case for easy transport and storage when not in use.
£39.95 (octagonal/oval models available); premierpokerchips.com
AGNE Bar Stools
Of course, having the perfect playing surface is all well and good, but as the average household doesn’t host dinner for eight or more people with any degree of regularity, the chances are you’re going to need some more chairs. However, proper seating can be expensive and space-consuming, so you’re probably better off investing in a few budget bar-stools instead. These inexpensive AGNE stools come in at under £13 apiece, can be stacked away in a corner when not in use and easily provide the level of comfort required to survive an average-length sit ‘n’ go.
£12.71; ikea.com
BrewZer Beer Making Kit
With all the equipment now in place to host the perfect home game on a shoestring budget, don’t blow your carefully-planned savings by shelling out on beer from the local offy. These wonderful BrewZer home-brewing kits provide an easily-affordable alcohol solution that couldn’t be easier to use. Each kit contains a 10-pint brewing barrel, beer dispenser and all the ingredients that you need to start brewing your own bitter or lager – all you have to do is mix the brewing packs in with cold water and leave the pressurised container to work its magic for 21 days. Before you know it, you’ll have 10 pints of perfect beer ready to drink straight from the keg.
£19.90 (lager or bitter brewing kit – refill packs can be bought for £26.95); firebox.com
Customise Your Own Budget Chips
Step 1: Buy your Dice Chips
If you’re going to get a decent home game started, you’re going to need chips – but that doesn’t mean that you need to shell out a fortune on a pre-packaged set. We recommend that you simply build your own poker set by investing in base-level chips and then customising them yourself. These chunky, 11.5g Dice Chips are a budget option familiar in home games the world over, and available in 9 separate colours for £1.50 per roll of 25, they’ll do the job for a minimal outlay. For a standard tournament, we’d suggest picking up 400 chips in a range of four colours.
Dice Chips - £1.50 per 25 chips (available in a range of colours); gamble.co.uk
Step 2: Customise your Set
Now, while your 11.5g Dice Chips are perfectly functional, they could certainly use a bit of jazzing up. Why not add a personal touch to your home game with a set of custom decals? This Chip Customiser package from Squirrel Poker includes easy-to-install software that enables you to design and print your own custom labels that can then be stuck directly onto any standard-sized chip for an instant talking point at any home game. The set includes 700 stickers, meaning that you have plenty of room to experiment with designs before customising your new chips.
Chip Customiser - £25.00; squirrelpoker.co.uk
Step 3: Rack ‘em Up
With your chips now fully customised and hopefully paid for with the profits of their home game debut, you’re now going to need a place to store them. However, in these financially-testing times why not avoid shelling out on an expensive and weighty aluminium case by simply racking them up afterwards in a casino style chip tray? This 400-capacity plastic model is the cheapest on the market, and will comfortably house your chips in a cupboard somewhere until you’re next ready to play.
Plastic chip tray - £5.95; gamble.co.uk |
