Gifts for Your Poker Buddy

Trying to decide on a gift for loved ones or friends can sometimes be a challenge. Assuming the person you need a gift for is a poker player, we intend to help with some ideas. Now it does not matter whether you player is a novice, enthusiast, semi -pro, or actually makes a living at this fun and frustrating game. You can still find a gift that he or she will appreciate.

Do you know the person well or is it just a family friend or relative that you don't see very often. These factors will obviously affect how much you want to spend, so we will cover several different types of poker related gifts. Many of these will be economical and some categories will range from economical to ridiculously expensive. Hopefully you will be armed with some great ideas at the end.

With a plethora of gifts available at the low end of the spectrum, you will want to at least try to get a good value for your money. An excellent and unique gift is a card guard. If you know the person at all you can attempt to somewhat personalized this item, due to the variety of card guards on the market. They range from 3 dimensional characters with goofy faces to very well designed brass coins with typical poker hands and jargon included. Price range for these items is $15 to $35 with most falling in the $15 range.

Don't forget one of the basics of any live card game. Playing cards have come in many varieties over the years, but the latest trend is the 100% PVC route of plastic playing cards. Initially it sounds a little weird, but once you handle a quality deck of these cards and see how long they last, you will be a believer. Oddly enough, plastic playing cards have been around at least 50 years, however their notoriety has increased in recent years along with the rise in popularity of Texas Hold'em. Two brands that you can't go wrong with are Kem and Copag.

Poker gifts can't be discussed without mentioning poker chips. If you are considering chips as a gift, you will most likely want to buy a complete set which will include a case of some sort and possibly many other accessories such as cards, dealer buttons, or dice. Many options exist to personalize the poker chip set. Gold foil hot stamping and custom labels are two great options for the chips themselves. Also many poker chip cases can be engraved. Poker chip sets run the gamut on pricing ranging from $30 to $1500.

Moving past the basic items needed to host a game, let's take a look at what may be needed to organize and run the game. If it is a tournament, chips must be assigned a value and divided among the players. Additionally, the structure must be set including the blinds, antes, round times, and length. Two types of products are ideal for this sophistication. The first types is poker software which must be loaded onto a computer and for ideal use the computer would then be hooked to a projector. The second type is a device which handles all of this in one portable and economical package. The best product in this group is the Poker Genie.

Knowledge of personal preferences helps with gift selection, but the Da vinci playing cards or the Modiano cards with be a definite hit.