Poker night? We’re all in. Check out our pointers for planning one.

1. Best Poker Night Food
2. Food For A Poker Party
3. Best Books On Poker
4. Poker Food Tables

Poker Night Idea 03: Food When it comes to food, it’s pretty easy to carry the theme. Whether you opt for a fondant covered cake with cards and a lucky clover, or simply try focusing on colors, you can’t go wrong with some of these ideas! Sweet treats on the dessert table included chocolate mousse, jelly cups, poker chip sugar cookies, vanilla cupcakes, macarons, and a large roulette cake. Trays were lined with poker Casino Night Food Casino Party Foods Casino Theme Parties Party Snacks Party Appetizers Parties Kids Party Events Full House Fingers Food.

Invitations

Get started by sending an Evite invitation, like the free “Who’s In?” cards-themed invitation below or a premium “Ante Up” poker night invitation. Check out our game night invitation gallery for more designs.

Decorations

It’s easy to find a home poker kit that includes cards, nice chips and a good playing surface. But if you don’t have one of these fancy kits, take a trip to a fabric store and get a big swatch of green felt to put over your tabletop.

Boxed or Bagged Food. Some guys might here poker night and say fire up the grill. You don’t cook meat for the dudes when they come over for poker, that’s what football Sunday’s are for. For poker, you should order in a few pizzas or go shopping and get a bunch of chips and salsa. Anything more and you’re grossly overthinking it.

It’s important to make sure you have enough poker chips for all of your guests. You probably can’t get by with less than 35 chips per person — most experts suggest more like 50 to 100 per head. If you don’t mind a mish-mash, ask your guests to bring some extra chips of their own. If you’re playing Texas Hold ‘Em, make sure you have a special chip set aside for the button.

To round out the theme, pick up some casino-themed napkins and plates decorated with images of dice, cards or dollar signs from a party store.

Attire

Even if you’re not playing for high stakes, you can still dress the part. Asking guests to come in suits and ties or cocktail dresses makes a simple get-together seem like an event.

You can also go casual and ironic by getting cheap costume armbands and green plastic dealer visors — poker doesn’t have to be super serious.

Best Poker Night Food

Playing with some card sharks? If they arrive wearing shirts with billowy sleeves, make sure they roll them up when you play so they can’t hide cards in them.

Variants

Texas Hold ‘Em is all the rage, but you can have a great card party with other poker variations: five-card draw, seven-card stud, hi/lo, baseball poker and other make-up-your-own-rules games.

The most important thing when playing poker is to be familiar with the winning hands. Here they are from high to low:

• Royal flush
• Straight flush
• Four of a kind
• Full house
• Flush
• Straight
• Three of a kind
• Two pair
• One pair

Too confusing? Just remember that a full house flushes a straight.

Food

Get a pizza delivered for quick sustenance that minimizes card-playing down time. Or put together a simple spread of appetizers. Make your own or get a big box of warm-in-the-oven hors d’oeurves at a warehouse club store. Just keep the food away from the playing table.

Drinks

If you’re playing poker, you might be thinking martinis are in order. Martinis will make your party upscale for sure (but they do call to mind James Bond, and his game was baccarat). If you’re going to go for some straight liquor, grab a bottle of single-malt scotch. Or, to mix cards and cocktails, consider the classy, old-fashioned cocktail called the Sidecar.

Sidecar

• 2 parts Cognac
• 1 part triple sec
• 1 part freshly squeezed lemon juice

Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker. Add ice. Shake, then strain into a chilled highball glass.

There are many who say that serious cards need to be played without the hazy influence of booze. So for a non-alcoholic alternative, grab some carbonated soda water and mix it up with some Italian syrup.

Other Items You Might be Interested In

The sixth article in our How to Host the Perfect Poker Home Game is another special one as John Donohue of Stay at Stove Dad has provided a meal plan for your epic evening of card playing.

Donohue is 42-year-old journalist and father of two who started the Stay at Stove Dad as a way of chronicling his effort’s to feed himself and his family. He’s since edited a book called Man with a Pan that features 21 writers and chefs discussing cooking.

Food For A Poker Party

If you like what you see here we highly recommend you check out his excellent Stay at Stove Dad blog.

Bon appetit!

Stay at Stove Dad Plus Poker

I’m not much of a gambling man, though I did have kids, which, truth be told, must be the biggest parlay of married life (and I doubled down, becoming a parent twice over), so I guess I’m not terribly risk adverse.

Back in my single days, I was once a part of a monthly poker game with some “card-playing friends” from work. I put that in quotes, because the only way our friendship could continue was if I stopped playing cards with them.

You must know that old saw about knowing who the sucker at the table is? Well, it took me about two nights around their table to figure out who it was. That was the end of my gambling days.

If I was going to have a poker party, though, I would have to serve food with it. I checked with some of my card-playing friends to see what kinds of things might work. Pretzels were the universal answer—It seems you don’t want anything sticky or greasy, lest you mess up the cards.

Best Books On Poker

Well, pretzels would never satisfy me—I need to snack on protein or else I feel jangly and worn out—so I racked my brain, and came up with some other ideas.

They might be far afield, but I think they’ll meet the requirement that you hands remain more-or-less clean, and no matter what the cards turn up, you’ll be a winner with these two dishes—they’re rich in protein, and that will make you feel good, and keep going.

Mussels a la Plancha

For something savory, make mussels a la plancha. It is pretty foolproof—all you need (besides the mussels) is a cast iron frying pan. These would be good with beer, too.

• 1 pound mussels
• 1 cast-iron frying pan
• Rinse the mussels well and pull any beards off them. Use only the intact ones that are completely closed.
• Heat the cast-iron pan until hot.
• Place the mussels on the pan in one layer.
• Cook over high heat until the mussels open, release their juices, and the juices boil off. When the liquid is gone, the mussels are ready.

Eat them right out of the pan. They will be smoky and delicious.

This will serve about 2-3 people. Do up to 3 lbs of mussels in two pans for more folks.

Meringues

For something sweet, make meringues, which may be a dessert, but they are almost all protein, so you won’t suffer a sugar crash. These must be made well ahead of time. I don’t know if these would be any good with beer, or not.

Preheat oven to 225 degrees.

• 4 egg whites
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 t. vanilla extract
• Beat eggwhites til frothy.
• Add vanilla.
• Add sugar a few spoonfuls at a time.
• Beat until stiff peaks form.

Scoop onto parchment paper and bake (really, oven-dry) at 225 degrees for a long time (about a hour) -- depending on whether you like them chewy inside or crunchy.

Poker Food Tables

Proper recipes will tell you to make sure the egg whites are at 70 degrees, and to sift the sugar. I'm lazy and don't do either. It is important to preheat the oven or you may burn the bottoms. Also, Joy of Cooking says that if you like chewy, 275 degrees; if you like crunchy 225 degrees. And leave them in the oven, with the heat turned off, and the door cracked open, to cool, for 30 minutes or so.

Serve with berries and ice cream on top, if you want the whole experience. Otherwise, just pop them in your mouth and keep playing.

More articles on How to Host the Perfect Poker Home Game:

• Part 6: What to Eat

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