Poker Gift Ideas for the Holidays

When it comes to buying gifts for a loved one during the holidays, nobody ever has a clue what to get for the poker player in their lives!

The latest poker book? Cards? Chips? A table-top shuffler? Let’s take a closer look and see what’s on offer…

A chip….

This is always top of the list of ideas for those who have a regular home game, but if you are going to do it – do it right!

Forget about the cheap and nasty plastic set of chips – treat them to something which is either high-quality and/or stands out in some way.

The official Playboy 300 Piece Poker Chip Set , which comes in an aluminium chip case, will certainly look the part when it’s brought out come game-time.

It’s good quality, includes 300 two-colour ABS-composite chips and the PlayBoy logo is embedded on both sides.

There are a variety of these cased sets available, many coming with a dealer and blind button pack, and also include 2 packs of 100% PVC playing cards, 2 cut cards and 5 dice.

At $75-00 (£50.00) they are reasonably-priced too and will certainly spruce up any card table.

Check out Premier Poker Chips for further details.

Alternatively, if you want to go the whole hog with chip sets, you can get customised high-quality chips made to order by the guys and girls at Chiplab.

They do full sets of monogrammed and design chips, where you can choose the colours and add your family name, initials, and even images.

Although a bit pricier – about $150 (£100) - the quality of these clay chips is very high and they come in a premium mahogany display case with cards. Have a look at ChipLab's site and decide for yourself if the extra $ would increase their smile.

…and a chair!

Something which had never really occurred to me when grinding away online, until I was presented with one, was a comfortable chair!

If your other half, or brother/father/mother etc. spends enough hours in front of a screen playing poker, they’ll certainly appreciate the difference a great chair makes to their poker play.

One of the most-favoured and well-respected makes is the Embody by Herman Miller, which as soon as you see it tells you it has your spine’s best interests at heart!

For anyone who loves their online poker sessions this is ideal.

They are not cheap, but most quality products aren’t – and with this chair you do really get what you pay for.

As the designer says, “Spending too much time interacting with our various devices, moving nothing but our fingers, can make us stiff and tired because our bodies are made to move. Every part of the chair was designed to serve a very specific, health-positive purpose.”

Coaching lessons…

“Coaching sessions would be cool” said one reddit.com user recently when asked for ideal poker gifts, and personally I’d have to agree!

It’s something which almost every player would benefit from, but relatively rarely ever gets around to buying or arranging on our own. So where to get such a thing?

Well, there are coaching ‘gift cards’ available at APT, who claim, “with over 10,000 members from 27 countries since 2009, Advanced Poker Training is the leader in adaptive, intelligent poker training.”

With gift cards ranging from $29.97 for a month up to $149.99 for a year’s coaching, there’s plenty of scope for a nice present here.

The person you’re buying for can also choose which game they prefer to train in, with full ring cash games, short-handed, SNG’s, or MTT available (ask them if you don’t know!)

Practice play, lessons, reports and training plans all go to make this a very useful gift for the one you love.

…and casino sessions!

Casino gift vouchers are another slightly unusual but very welcome present – and allow your recipient choose what they spend the voucher on: a tournament entry, food and drinks at the casino or some other games if they enjoy the gambling tables as well as poker.

It’s not difficult to check if your local casino offers such a thing – almost all will have at least some form of loyalty card you can top-up – and some even offer this option online.

Contact your own local casino to see what they offer – you’ll be surprised at how common this type of gift is becoming.

Strategy Mouse mat….

This one was new to me, but is actually pretty clever and may prove invaluable if your gift is for an online poker fiend friend!

If you’ve never seen one of these before, it’s basically a normal-functioning mouse-mat, but instead of a design or picture it has over 2000 useful betting plays printed on it, giving advice on what to do in different situations depending on what style of player you are.

Not sure what to do, then simply glance at the mat! Its simple, and a very useful way to keep your play from getting too sloppy, or, alternatively, allowing you to change styles whenever the need arises.

Even if you don’t use all the info, it’s still better for your poker than staring at a picture of a cat on your mat for hours on end!

….to a top-end table!

It will set you back something in the region of $1400, but the felt-lined poker table converts into a dining table very simply and features a durable Chinese rubberwood construction that will last for a long long time and is large enough to seat eight players at once.

If your budget doesn’t quite extend to the ‘man-cave’ table above, there are many other options available to you.

The Deluxe Foldable Poker Blackjack Carrying Tabletop is one of those and comes in at a more reasonable $69-00 or so. You can take your favourite poker or blackjack game on the road, camping or anywhere you like with this great table top, and it comes with a carry-bag to allow you to do just that.

It’s a decent quality table-top, 4ft by 4ft, and will certainly be sturdy enough to host all but the most ‘energetic’ of poker games!

Hopefully this short guide has given you at least some ideas now of what to get that special poker-crazy person in your life, and there are a hundred and one other ideas out there too.

And if you’re hoping to be on the receiving end of one of the gifts shown above, just forward this article on to your nearest and dearest – there’s nothing quite like a big hint to ensure you get what you really like!