Types Of Poker Tables
A typical casino poker table has a length of between 92 and 104 inches (234 and 264 cm), a width of 44 inches (112 cm), and a height of 30 inches (76 cm). You can expect to also add 4 inches (10 cm) to the length and width for the outer “racetrack” railing. The weight commonly ranges from 170 to 200 pounds (77 to 91 kilos ) but can go up to as high as 350 pounds (159 kilos).
Outside of casino models, there is no official or standard sizing for poker tables as it all depends on who is making it and the shape of the table. In fact, there is pretty much a table out there to fit any space. From roll-up poker mats to octagon, round, and oval folding poker tables, with and without legs. And, of course, you have the high-end professional versions that are meant to simulate casino quality tables. Let’s take a look at the various types and shapes found in home poker tables, what they are made of, and how many people they typically seat.
Please note, dimensions will be listed in the following format in inches: Length x Width x Height (cm conversion)
Oval Poker Tables
Oval poker tables are the most common design and home models usually fold up for storage.
What are the different types of poker table? There’s a growing range of poker tables that might take your fancy: Roll-able poker tables. Roll-up poker tables are generally blue and come with a sticky surface, ensuring your poker table. Mixed poker games. Poker can be played in a mixed game format, for example one half-hour of Texas hold 'em followed by one half-hour of Seven-card stud. There are many types of mixed poker games. The most notable mixed poker variation is H.O.R.S.E. Mostly these tables are large wooden tables; at times you may find that some poker players have different needs. For this, people assume that any type of table will serve as their poker playing table. Poker Tables are generally found on sale in shops that sell different types. The purpose of a poker table-top is to transform any regular table into a poker table. It’s usually the most inexpensive option and of course the most portable. It won’t be the same “jaw dropping” experience like the oval or round tables, but it will definitely get the job done. Those are the different poker tables. Alphabetical List of Home Poker Games! Discover another side of poker. A unique website that offers step-by step instructions for a variety of poker games. An extensive list of home poker games awaits.
- Sizes
Permanent home versions are often 92x44x30 (234x112x76). Foldable models are usually about 84x42x30 (213x107x76) but can be as small as around 73 inches long and 32 inches wide. - Weight
54 to 85 pounds. - Materials
Tops are usually felt-covered wood, the railing vinyl, and the legs steel. Materials can vary based on the quality and price point. - Number Of Players
Most oval tables are designed to hold 9 or 10 players, however, some of the smaller models typically only hold 6 or 7 comfortably. To truly hold 9 or 10 players, 84-inch width and up is recommended.
Octagon Poker Tables
Octagonal tables have grown in popularity since most home poker games consist of 4-6 people. These tables are nice and compact and handle that number of people easily.
- Sizes
48x48x30 (122x122x76) for foldable models. Tabletop versions are usually the same size but occasionally are found a bit bigger, around 50 inches wide. - Weight
45 to 60 pounds with legs, 20-40 pounds for tabletop versions. - Materials
Folding octagonal tables are usually felt-covered wood, the railing plastic and occasionally vinyl, with the steel legs. Tabletop versions are often felt-covered plastic, with a plastic border or “railing”. Again, materials can vary based on the quality and price point. - Number Of Players
Most octagon-shaped table, like this one found on Amazon , are designed to hold up to 8 players. However, most versions will comfortably hold 5 or 6.
Round Poker Tables
Round poker tables are actually the least common design you will see and are typically only available in permanent options.
- Sizes
48 to 60 inches wide. Tabletop versions are hard to find but are about 48 inches wide. - Weight
Too rare to put a common weight. - Materials
Varies. - Number Of Players
There’s a reason round tables are out of vogue; they just don’t hold as many people as oval or octagonal models do. Most round poker tables hold 4 people, 5 if you squeeze in.
Square Poker Tables
Square tables are also rare and about 34 inches across. Since they only hold 4 people, most people opt for a different shape, or just use a square table from Walmart. Even so, if you only hold small games, they can be a decent option.. if you can find one. Tabletop versions that can be set on an existing dining room table do exist, however, my advice is to instead get a rectangular mat… covered in the next section.
What About Poker Mats?
Poker mats are an excellent option for the occasional impromptu card game. They are light and portable as is humanly possible, since they are made of either cloth or rubber, and typically come in a rectangular or oval shape. Poker mats, like this one found on Amazon, are usually about 72×36 (183×91).
Space Needed For A Poker Table
Ideally, you want at least 3 feet (1 meter) of clearance around a poker table to allow for adequate seating and movement around the room. If you have a small square poker room, I would suggest an octagon-shaped table, as these seem to fit best in small spaces while allowing for a maximum number of people to be seated. If your room is rectangular, any oval table like this nice Amazon model, that fits within the parameters of the space will do fine.
Important Tip: When choosing a poker table make sure that you look at the actual total dimensions of the table including any railings. Often, the sale listing of a poker table will only include the dimensions of the actual playing area of the table
What About Chairs?
Remember to always leave ample space and elbow room around your poker table for people to be able to get in and out of their chairs and maneuver their poker chips. I would recommend just getting folding chairs for your poker buddies unless you are playing at a dining room table that already has nice sturdy chairs. On that front, I suggest that you invest in some heavy-duty chairs that will hold players who might be on the heavy side. Here are some that should do the job nicely. They have a really high weight capacity.
Do Covering Types Affect Table Size?
All types of table coverings can be affixed to any table dimension. Even so, while covering types do not directly affect the space that a table will fit, you may want to consider using a faster cloth in more enclosed spaces. With standard cloth, the cards will not move across the surface and someone dealing at the end of the table in a recreational game will have a hard time sliding the cards all the way to the other end on slower cloth. There are two common options for poker table coverings, or felt; standard felt or speed cloth.
- Standard Felt
This is the standard choice for the most poker tables, especially lower-priced versions. The surface has a roughness to it and often it is challenging to get the cards to slide all the way out to where you want them while dealing. However, this is the least expensive surface and is fine for most players. Even so, some people like to upgrade to a “professional” surface, called speed cloth. - Speed Cloth
A lot of poker enthusiasts and professional poker players prefer the surface they play on to be a bit faster than standard felt. Therefore, they often want to play with speed cloth. Made of a more slippery type of polyester, you will have no issues getting cards to slide from one end of the table to the other end while dealing. However, players not used to a faster surface may grumble that the cards are sliding too fast, and sometimes flying off the table. The vast majority of poker tables do not come standard with speed cloth, as it is usually an upgrade only if one is willing to pay for the option.
A Brief History of Poker Table Sizes
The earliest card tables show up in the 1700s in response to the growing popularity of card games around Europe. In fact, it was common for people to buy card tables as fine furniture for their home, prominently displayed. Many versions even had a folding top, which allowed them to function as another piece of furniture when not in use. The wealthier classes paid exorbitant amounts for higher-end tables. Most of the designs were semicircular or oval and typically 36 inches in diameter.
For more about finding the right poker table, I also wrote a comprehensive poker table guide to help you in your search. Thanks for stopping by!
Tournaments are popular. Other than High Stakes Poker, all that’s shown on TV is MTTs.
We think what makes tournaments sexy are the large prize pools. People like seeing people play for hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars. And you don’t get that that often with cash games.
It happens often with tournaments, though.
Of course, it depends on the buy-in and game, but many of the events shown on TV are the large ones with a $5,000, $10,000 or even $100,000 buy-in. These tourneys create prize pools that often reach the 7-figure mark. And that creates a lot of buzz.
So, naturally, a lot of people are curious about tournaments.
- What are they?
- How do you get started?
- Where do you play?
- What can you play?
We thought it’d make sense to create a page that answers those questions – and many others.
A poker tournament is a game with a fixed format. Everything is predetermined – the blinds, buy-in, stack sizes, antes, structure and time limit.
The buy-in can vary from free (freerolls) to .05 to $20 to $100,000. There’s always a cut for the poker room, too, which is easier to see online. Most tournaments will be labeled $X+$Y where X goes to the prize pool and Y is the amount the poker room gets.
Once you’re entered you’ll want to log in or show up when the tournament is supposed to start. For sit and go’s (SNGs), that can be whenever, as they start whenever the tables are full. But for MTTs it’s a set time and place. If you’re online the poker room will automatically seat you (randomly) at a table.
From there you’ll have a stack of chips to play with. You’ll have the same amount as everyone else, unless the tournament offers re-buys and add-ons. Then the tournament will start.
A tournament will play very much like a cash game. Once every one posts their blinds, antes, etc., each player is dealt their cards. Then they play according to that game’s and variation’s rules.
But unlike cash games, tournaments have levels. Each level will be a predetermined length – it can be 1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 1 hour, and so on. Each tourney will be different. But after the time’s up, when the next level starts the blinds will be higher.
For example, in a turbo 18-man on PokerStars, the blinds start at 10/20. After 5 minutes they go to 15/30, then 25/50, 50/100, and so on.
This is important to pay attention to, because if you don’t continue to add chips to your stack, eventually the blinds will be large enough that you’ll be blinded out. Then your tournament is over.
The tournament continues like this until one player remains with all the chips in play.
Players are then paid according to the structure set from the beginning – although this does change a little in the beginning if the tournament allows late registrations (players can sign up and pay to play after the tourney starts).
The number of players paid will depend on the number of players in the tournament. SNGs are always fixed. For example, in a 9-10 man SNG 3 players are paid. In an 18-man SNG four players are paid. It’s seven in a 45-man and 9 in an 180-man. It just depends on the tourney.
When you play online any money you win will be put into your account balance automatically. We think some sites reserve the right to pay the next day on larger tournaments and payouts, but none that do this come to mind.
And that’s basically a tournament and how it works in a nutshell.
You’ll find tournaments online, in live casinos (not all are major “events” either), and even played in homes. They’re a great way to get LOTS of entertainment and value out of a fixed amount of money.
What Types of Tournaments Can You Play?
There are LOTS of tournaments you can play. The most popular game played is Texas holdem.
Home Poker Tables For Sale
But since the “poker boom” more and more games are played in tournament form. And that includes both online and live (and shown on TV too).
That means you can play games like omaha, stud, razz, HORSE, other mixed games, and others, in tournament format. No limit is obviously the popular betting limit, but depending on the game, limit and pot limit is used, too.
And, as we mentioned earlier, stakes vary wildly. Online you’ll find stakes starting from free to .05 to around $500. There are some larger ones (including SNGs), but that’s where the bulk of tournaments fall. The Sunday Majors (the biggest tourneys of the week online) usually fall between $200 and $500.
Offline, you’ll find many tourneys starting at $20 to $500. It just depends on the room. But for the larger “events” they’ll start around $500 or $1,500, and then climb from there.
Other than the game and stakes, one other choice you’ll have to make is the type of tournament you’ll play. There are LOTS of them.
Here are the most common options:
- Freezeout – Most tourneys fall into this category. Once you bust you’re out of the tourney.
- Rebuy – Like a freezeout, except that for a short period (usually the first couple of levels) you can buy into the tourney again when you bust.
- Turbo / Super Turbo – The levels are much faster. Instead of 20+ minutes, they’re something like 3-10 minutes. This requires a big change in strategy. And the faster the blinds the more luck that’s involved.
- Guarantee – This is any tournament where a prize pool is guaranteed, no matter how many players show up. This is great because if the players don’t make up the prize pool, the room will. This is called an overlay.
- Satellite – These are tournaments where the prize are seats to a more expensive/higher value tournament.
For example, several years ago we played a 5-table shootout for $15 that awarded a few seats to the Sunday Million, which you could buy into directly for $215.
Another good example is Chris Moneymaker – he won a $40 satellite to a higher dollar satellite, which then awarded him a seat to the WSOP Main Event which has a $10,000 buy-in.
Here are the most common options:
- Bounty/Knockout – In these tournaments you pay a little extra. That little extra goes to a “bounty” which is paid whenever you or someone else knocks a player out of the tournament. For example, if there’s a $5 bounty on each player’s head, and someone knocked you out, they’d get your $5 chip.
- SNGs – We mentioned these a bit already, but these are smaller tournaments with fixed fields that start once all the seats have been filled. These are great to play between tournaments or as a variance buster.
- Deep Stacks – You start with a deep(er) stack than normal. Instead of 1,500 chips it might be 3,000. Or instead of 5,000 you might start with 10,000 or 20,000.
- Shootouts – With these each table plays until there’s one player left. Then all these players play a final table. For example, in a 5-table shootout, the winner from each table would play a 5-handed final table for the prize(s).
- Steps – This is common online. It’s sort of like a satellite tournament, but broken down even more. You might have 6 steps, starting from the lowest stakes (
For example, you buy in directly to step 4, and if you win, you get to play step 5. Once you get to the last level the prize is usually a seat to a higher value tourney.
The great thing about these is if you lose, often times you get to play the step over or move down a step depending on where you finished. Even if you win nothing you get LOTS of value out of these.
Those are the most common tournament variations. But depending on where you play you’ll find other variations.
One unique thing about poker tournaments is you’ll find many events and series to join.
A series is simply a set number of tournaments hosted by a poker site or venue. They’ll have higher buy in tourneys, satellites to all the series tourneys, and maybe give out jewelry to the winners.
Here are the major tournament series in both online and live poker.
- World Series of Poker (WSOP)
- 50+ events with a bracelet and money going to the winner. Played in Las Vegas once per year starting in May/June. The Main Event final table plays in November.
- World Poker Tour (WPT)
- Similar to the WSOP. Played throughout the year. The winner of each tourney gets a bracelet.
- Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP)
- One of PokerStars’ online series.
- World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP)
- Another PokerStars’ series. Played in the fall.
- Aussie Millions
- A smaller event held in Australia. Known for having some of the highest buy-ins in history.
- European Poker Tour
- Owned and sponsored by the Rational Group (previous owner of PokerStars). Similar to the WPT, but held in different venues throughout Europe.
Those are the major events which are held once or twice per year. But you also have the Sunday Majors which are held once per week.
We say this as if you’ll find a major tournament series every Sunday at every poker site online. But that’s not really the case. PokerStars really has a monopoly on this. Right now they have 12 events running every Sunday with buy-ins ranging from $1+re-buys to $11 to $530 – and satellites running to all of them. Guaranteed prize pools for each event vary from $25,000 to $1,000,000.
Many sites run a (much) smaller version of PokerStars’ Sunday Majors. Sometimes they’ll host several larger tournaments throughout the week instead of all in one day. It just depends on the site.
How to Choose a Tournament to Play
Choosing a site to join for tournaments can be tricky. You could go a few different ways.
For example, you could join a new site where they’ll have smaller guaranteed tournaments. These often have overlays. You’ll have less players to fight through for the same prize pool.
However, these tournaments don’t get very big. And there’s not very many of them offered. On top of that, many sites have shut down tourneys when too few players show up instead of honoring the guarantee.
We prefer to go the other way. Look for sites that are established with lots of traffic and tournaments. We believe there’s more value in that. Not only will tournaments run more often, but there will be tournaments of all shapes and sizes. Tournaments with different games, variations, buy-ins, and blind levels/structures.
We would also look for a poker site that offers lots of live/online satellites. Often times the competition for the higher dollar buy-ins isn’t much greater than the lower stakes – it’s just a matter of who can afford it. Satellites give you a way to afford it.
From there choosing a tournament is rather straightforward. You want to choose a game and variation that you like and/or are good at. You might want to look at the blinds too, to make sure you choose a speed (normal to fast) you like and the structure jumps up in blinds at a comfortable pace. But we don’t think most players need to worry about stuff like that.
Types Of Poker Tables
They should just find a game and get signed up instead.
Types Of Poker Tables
Conclusion: Get More Out of Your $5 Than Just a Latte
There you have it – an overview of poker tournaments, how they work, and different types of tourneys you can play.
From here it’s a matter of choosing a game and getting started. If it were us, we’d choose a $5 or $10 turbo MTT with a starting stack of 1,500 and 3,000. Maybe find one that offers bounties – which can be lots of fun.
WAY more fun than you’ll get out of your $5 latte from Starbucks.