How To Clean A Home Poker Table
29 September 2009How To Clean A Home Poker Table
If you allow people to eat and drink at your home poker table, sooner or later you are going to ask yourself the question, how do you clean a poker table? Spills are an inevitable part of food. If people drink at your table, someone is going to spill and you are going to have to clean it. If you are reading this, you most likely have a felt poker table. The other material of choice, speed-cloth, is nearly invincible to a table full of sloppy drinkers.
Treat the Table Like Upholstery
The felt on your poker table is essentially upholstery on any piece of furniture. If you are gentle with it, you can clean it as you would any other upholstery. The best way is to rent or borrow a carpet cleaning machine with an upholstery attachment. Get some carpet cleaning foam, and follow the directions, and you should have great results cleaning your poker table. If you can’t get your hands on a carpet machine, then some carpet cleaning foam with a wet shop vacuum will also work.
One thing that you need to be careful is that the cleaning liquid you get is for a carpet machine. Just using regular Resolve, or another spot cleaner will lead to problems since they foam too much in a machine. You also want to use cold water to avoid shrinking the felt. Make sure the table is completely dry before you play on it again.
If you take the felt off the poker table to clean it, don’t put it through the washing machine.
Cleaning Crumbs Or Pet Hair
Other messes on your poker table can be cleaned much easier. If you have crumbs or pet hair on your poker table, you can clean them with a lint roller or a stiff brush. Billiard supply stores would have a good brush for cleaning felt.
Steps To Keep Your Table Clean
If you want to avoid stains on your poker table in the future, there are three things that you can do
- Re-upholster your poker table with speed-cloth – It is much better than felt at resisting stains from spilled drinks
- Forbid Drinks At The Table – Drinks should either go on the floor or a close by side table. That is the rule that casinos use, and if you want to prevent all spills, you should as well. The little round cup holders in the table aren’t really for cups, think of them as cell phone and gadget holders.
- Use Bottles And Cans – At the very least, if you are going to allow drinks at your poker table, make sure they are in bottles or cans. A spilled bottle will only leak a little liquid before it is mopped up, a spill glass will empty it’s entire contents onto the poker table.
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