Best Poker Accessories for a Home Game (10 Cheap Upgrades)

These are the 10 cheap upgrades that make a home poker game feel like a real card room. Most of them cost under 20 bucks. Two of them are free and everyone fixes a fight that actually happens at home games, like whose deal it is or the dealer sweeping up your cards while you're still in the hand. And there's one popular upgrade, the one on every poker gift list that I would never buy. So stick around for that one. Number 10 is free and it fixes the question you hear every hand at a new table. Somebody picks up a chip and asks, "Wait, what's the blue worth again?" and then somebody else asked the same thing 20 minutes later. So, print a little card with every chip color and what it's worth and stand it up in the middle of the table. White is one, red is five, green is 25 or whatever your game uses. It takes 2 minutes, it costs nothing and nobody ever has to ask the host again. Number nine is a cut card and a pack of them cost about five bucks. Here's the problem it fixes. The dealer picks up the deck and the bottom card is facing out so half the table just saw the queen of hearts. or the dealer tilts the deck while he's dealing and you catch a flash of the bottom card. A cut card is a plain plastic card that sits on the bottom of the deck, so the only thing anybody can see is a blank card. It makes the cut easy, too, because the player who cuts just slides it into the deck where they want the cut. Number eight is a real dealer button, plus a small blind and a big blind button, and the set runs about $10. Because the most common argument at a home game isn't about cards, it's whose deal is it? Somebody gets up for a drink. The deck gets passed the wrong way. And suddenly, two people both think they're the big blind. The button sits in front of the dealer and moves one seat to the left after every hand. And the two blind buttons move right along with it so the whole table can see who posts what without asking. Number seven is a card guard. A little weight you set on top of your two cards and it stops the worst moment in a home game. You're still in the hand. You look away for a second and the dealer trying to be helpful sweeps your cards into the muck with everybody else's. Now your hand is dead and it doesn't matter that you had aces. A card guard tells the dealer, "I'm still in." You can buy them for a few bucks each, but honestly, a coin, a ring, or a spare chip on top of your cards does the same job. The rule is simple. If your cards are protected, nobody touches them. Number six is cup holders. And if you've ever had a beer go over on the felt in the middle of a hand, you already know why. A drink on the table is a spill waiting to happen. And a spill means wet cards, sticky chips, and a hand nobody can finish while everybody runs for paper towels. Clip-on cup holders hook onto the edge of the table or you can grab a few little side tables. And either way, it's around 20 bucks for the whole table. Drinks go off the felt and the felt stays a place for cards and chips. [music] Now, the one I'd never buy because it's on every poker gift list. It's the automatic card shuffler. It looks like a pro move, and it's only about $25, but a cheap shuffler is loud, it's slow, it can jam, and it basically does one shuffle per pass. A deck needs about seven good riffle shuffles before it's really mixed. So, after one pass through the machine, cards that were together last hand are still sitting close together. The whole table watches it buzz, and the game actually gets slower. The real fix costs less, and it's number five. Number five is a second deck in a different color. While one deck is being dealt, somebody who's already folded shuffles the other one and sets it next to the next dealer. When the hand ends, the next dealer grabs the shuffle deck and deals right away. No waiting, no machine, and you get a lot more hands in a night. The two different back colors matter because if a card ends up on the floor, you know instantly which deck it came from. A set of two plastic decks is about 15 to 20 bucks. And the cards video has the exact deck I use. Number four is chip trays for the bank. Picture the end of the night. Six people are pushing chips toward the host. The stacks are falling over and somebody counts 35 where there were 40. Acrylic chip trays hold a 100 chips in five rows of 20 and a few of them cost about 10 bucks. You build the buyins in stacks of 20 before anybody shows up. and at the end you rack everybody's chips the same way so you can count a whole tray at a glance. The bank stays honest and the count takes 2 minutes instead of 20. Number three is the cheapest real upgrade on the list and almost nobody does it. Better light. Most home games are played under one dim kitchen bulb and that's when the arguments start. Was that a club or a spade? Is that a six or an eight? How much is actually in the pot? A brighter bulb or a $15 clamp lamp aimed at the middle of the table fixes all of it. Just light the felt. not people's faces, so nobody's squinting into a lamp all night. Number two is real chips. If you're still playing with the light plastic chips that came in a cheap set, this is the upgrade you'll feel the most. They slide, they won't stack, and a tall stack falls over every time somebody bumps the table. Heavier chips around 11 to 14 g stack straight and make that click when you push them into the middle. A decent 500 chipset runs about $50 to $100. And the chipset video goes through exactly which one to buy for your group. And number one is felt. A bare kitchen table is the reason cards fly off the edge, chips skid away, and nobody can pick up their cards without bending them. A felt or speedcloth mat that rolls out over your table is around 30 bucks and it changes the whole night. Cards slide to each player and stop. Chips stack and it finally looks like a poker game instead of dinner. If you only buy one thing on this list, buy this one. So that's the list. Chip card, cut card, buttons, card guards, cup holders, two decks, chip trays, light real chips, and felt. and skip the shuffler. Leave out the chips and everything else together comes to about 120 bucks, which is less than most people spend on snacks for a few poker nights. And there's one more upgrade for the host. It's the end of the night and somebody asks, "Wait, how much do I owe and who do I pay?" That's why I built HG Poker. You log the buyins and rebys as the night goes. And at the end, it shows exactly who owes who, so nobody does math at 1:00 in the morning. It holds no money and moves no money. It just keeps the records. So, tell me in the comments what's the one upgrade your table actually needs. And if you're putting your game together from scratch, watch my home game setup video next. [music]