1. How to Build a Poker Table - Step by Step Instructions. Poker table, poker table plans.
2. This picnic table is quite large at 85' in total width, while the table top is slightly over 4' wide. Sturdy, standard, and time-tested construction is used. Plans include a list of materials, instructions and large format measured drawings.
3. This page will instruct you on how you can build an eight player poker table step by step. The finished poker table is shown in the photograph below. The table is octogonal and has cut outs to hold cards, poker chips and beverage cups. The board is finished with stain and glossy clearcoat varnish; also the playing surface is covered in felt.

Octagon picnic table woodworking plans and information at, This is your woodworking search result for octagon picnic table woodworking plans and information at woodworkersworkshop®. 3-in-1 oak finished wood poker, pool, game, dining table, Amazon 3-in-1 oak finished wood poker, pool, game, dining table and 4 chairs set. 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.

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

• Part 1: Plans and Materials

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

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.

This is the 2nd part of a multi-part series. View the rest:

• Part 2: Racetrack

Since I’ve been busy with some other outdoor game projects (Cornhole boards and Washer Toss), I’ve decided to simplify my racetrack design a little bit. Instead of a chip tray and cupholder on each section, I’m opting for a cupholder at the angle where two sections meet.

There are three reasons for this:

1. I’m running out of time to have this finished.
2. The grain of the sub-table (plywood) showing through wouldn’t be lined up with the direction of the grain of the racetrack.
3. I think I like the full wood surface on the racetrack better (instead of inset chip trays).

Granted, the first reason is due to lack of planning, but I’d like to think I would have ended up with the same conclusion based on #2 and #3 above.

Cutting the Racetrack Pieces

Note: This seemingly simple step is actually fairly complicated, if you don’t have the right equipment. Turns out, I don’t. Not really.

I own a miter saw, but it’s not a sliding one. This proved to make things a lot harder than I initially anticipated. My saw couldn’t cut all the way through each 2×8, so each angle cut was really two cuts, with me trying to line the cuts up perfectly.

The cuts are made by setting the miter saw to 22.5° (half of 45°). Most miter saws have a positive stop at this angle, so the saw will “lock” into place. I cut the first piece based on my measurements from earlier (21.75″ on the outside edge). After that, I used this piece as a template to make the other cuts.

Pro Tip: Don’t be lazy and flip your work piece over so you don’t have to switch your miter saw from side to side. I always try to cut with the finish side up, so the majority of my tear-out will be underneath, on the side no one will see.

Once you have your 8 pieces, arrange them in your octagon shape to see how you did on your cuts.

Drilling the Cupholder Holes

Learn from my mistakes: Before you do this step, read the section below about gluing, so you can decide if you want to change up the order of things.

This is a step that could have possibly waited until later, but I chose to do it now, to help improve the fit of my angle cuts. Since you’re cutting out a good chunk of each joint, there’s less wood to work down if the fit isn’t perfect.

To drill the holes properly, clamp the heck out of your two pieces and drill away. Oak tends to be a very hard wood, so it’ll take some doing. Don’t put too much pressure on the drill or you’ll burn it out. Just let the teeth of the hole saw do the work and you should be fine.

Learn from my mistakes: It should be noted that the three “quick-clamps” in the above photo were not enough to fight the torque of the hole saw. After my first pair of pieces shifted while drilling, I upgraded to some screw-able C-clamps, which did a much better job. Just use some scraps to protect your surface.

Minor Adjustments may be Necessary

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It’s pretty clear from the photo above that my cuts weren’t entirely perfect. To fix this, butt two of your pieces up against each other, and circle any ill-fitting areas. Go around your whole ring and do this.

Then, grab the rasp and file and work down the areas that need fixing little by little until you get a good, tight joint.

Note: It may be a good idea to actually wait on this step until you’ve attached the bullnose piece under each panel, but I did it like this and then just re-checked my fit after the bullnose pieces were attached underneath.

Attaching the Bullnose Pieces

Learn from my mistakes: Before you do this step, read the section below about gluing, so you can decide if you want to change up the order of things.

I unfortunately don’t have any photos of this step, so you’ll have to use your imagination while I describe it.

To make the bullnose, I cut my 1×2′s to a length of 24″ and used a combination of wood glue and finish nails to attach them to the bottom outside edges of my racetrack pieces. 24″ was way too long, of course, but it’s easier to trim them down to the correct length once it’s attached, since you can use the racetrack panel as a guide.

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This is what you’ll end up with, once your holes are cut and bullnose pieces are attached.

Routing the Pieces

The rounded edge on the bullnose is done with a router on each section of the racetrack. You can use a router by itself or a router table for this. I used a 1/2″ roundover bit on the top and bottom of the bullnose and a 1/8″ roundover on the inside edge with the router table. The router table makes it nice and easy, since you don’t have to worry about clamping the pieces down.

Pro Tip: It’s fairly important to do the routing at this stage. If you wait until after the racetrack is assembled, your interior routs won’t be able to go all the way to the inside corner of each joint, because the router bit has its own diameter to contend with. (For what it’s worth, some people like the look of that kind of joint, but not me.)

Which brings us to…

Gluing the Racetrack Together

Learn from my mistakes: I just picked up a pocket hole jig at Harbor Freight Tools the other day, and thought this would be a good project to try it out on. I did, however, run into an issue. My plan was to have two pocket holes connecting each racetrack joint, but because the bullnose piece was already attached, I didn’t have the clearance necessary to drill the second hole.

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Keep learning: So, there are a few solutions here. You can either drill the pocket holes first before attaching the bullnose piece, or you can decide to put your cupholders somewhere else, like completely on one panel, for example. Then you’d be able to use two pocket holes for each joint.

This step takes some patience, unless you happen to have a boatload of clamps. I do not, so I could only do one joint at a time. Once everything was filed down so each joint was tight, I went around the octagon, gluing each joint together and then letting each joint dry for 15-20 minutes before removing the clamps and moving on to the next one.

You pretty much can’t use too much glue on this step, and a lot of glue will make a really strong bond. Put glue on both surfaces, then clamp the heck out of it the best you can. Once it was clamped, I drove my single pocket screw in on the inside of each joint, then did my best to clamp the outer edge of the joint.

I actually figured out a much better way to clamp then I have pictured above, so I’ll try and draw it out.

So, if I had done that originally, I probably would have spent less time using wood filler to make my joints nice and smooth!

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Next Step: The Vertical Skirt

I actually don’t have a photo of the ring completely glued together, but you’ll see it in later steps. So, that completes the Racetrack. Next we’ll have the vertical skirt, which adds some class to the underside of the table.