How to Choose Poker Party Food

So, you are ready to have a group of friends over for a poker night at your house? You have the cards, the table, and the chips. Now all you need is the food. Food for poker nights in general should be relatively simple. Keep in mind the more time you spend eating, the less time you will spend playing. Here is a guide for how to choose food for your poker night.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• poker playing friends
• paper plates
• plastic ware
• paper towels
• menus for local delivery restaurants

How To Choose Poker For Your Poker Night

1. Prepare light snacks for your friends when they arrive. These are snacks they will eat while they are waiting for everyone to arrive and during the early hands of the poker game. My suggestion is tortilla chips and potato chips. You can supply salsa and queso as well, but tend to get ignored because they can be messy. You don't want your cards to get sticky, so sticking with the chips without toppings is usually the best idea.

2. Prepare finger foods for the "meal" portion of your poker night that aren't too messy and everyone will enjoy. Consider picking up a party tray of subs or wraps from your local fast food restaurant. Some favorites are the large trays of chicken nuggets, trays of wraps, trays of small sandwiches, or trays of soft tacos. Keep in mind the soft tacos can get to be a bit messy though.

3. Display menus from local restaurants for your guests to browse through before the poker game begins if you want something more substantial. Let everyone vote on where to order from and then order their food. Pizza is the type of food you can eat with one hand while playing poker. Another suggestion would be small subs. The only issue is sometimes messier subs can delay the game and mess up your playing cards. Push your guests towards ordering pizza instead of subs, unless they want to take a break from poker to eat their subs.

4. Prepare snacks for your guests to have for dessert. Stock up on some finger dessert snacks. These can include cookies, two-bit brownies, and maybe even small pieces of cakes. Make or order desserts that do not have a lot of icing, once again food that is messy is a major risk to get your cards dirty and sticky, ruining the cards.

5. Design a plan to get rid of your leftovers. Offer the leftovers to your friends who lose the most money during your poker night. At least this way they will feel like they came away with something for the night.

Tips & Warnings

• Suggest to your friends to enjoy the salsa and queso if you serve it before the game starts, but ask them to restrain from bringing it to the table.
• Remember oil can destroy poker cards, so you will want to limit your oily foods or have plenty of paper towels available at the poker table. Keep them at the table, it's unlikely your guests will walk over to the towels and away from the game.