The Techwear Weblog

Fans of poker around the world host home poker games each and every day. These range from simple penny-ante style games to high rolling mega-events. You don't have to be a high roller, or even spend a lot of money in order to host your own poker games. Below are some of the gadgets you will need to setup you home poker game. You can also see these other tips on how to run a home poker game.

Cards

Obviously the first things you will want to buy are playing cards. The quality of the cards are going to depend on how serious your game is and how much you want to spend. A couple of decks of Bicycle playing cards are great for most causal games and will only hit you for a couple of bucks a deck.

Those with more serious games will want to go the route of either Copag or Kem cards. Copag cards are PVC plastic and last around 50 times longer than normal playing cards. Kem cards are 100% Cellulose Acetate Plastic and are the longest lasting cards you can get. Copag's will run you $15 to $20 for a set of two decks and Kem cards will run between $20 and $30 for the same.

Chips

Poker chips are a necessity for playing poker, even if you are playing for real money. The quality will depend on your game. You social poker games can get away with simple plastic chips in a carousal set. You can usually find these for around $10 or less at Wal-Mart or other places. You might even find some at a yard sale. Make sure to get around 500 to 1000 chips.

For your more serious games or for those wanting a higher quality set, something like the Da Vinci 500 Poker set will work. Ranging from $20 to $100 you get a large, high quality plastic poker chip set complete with case, dealer buttons, and even a couple of decks of cards.

Those of you that are truly serious about your game are going to want to buy sets of clay chips for your players. These are the standard for card rooms in casinos and usually run on the low end in the $150 to $500 range for a set. They can go up to $1,000 for the really nice sets.

Tables

Be prepared to spend some money if you want an authentic poker experience. In the $50 to $100 you have the simple eight sided poker table. These are really no more than glorified card tables with felt and maybe some cup and chip holders.

If you're willing to go up a bit, for between $100 and $300 you can find full size Texas Hold'em tables and many of these even have cup holders. The truly serious games will want to bump it up and get a professional style Texas Hold'em table complete with dealer's box. These will run you at minimum a couple grand.

© dr_relling

Nobody likes mosquito attacks, and they can be a real nightmare during summer vacations in the great outdoors. Even though people have come up with different forms of protection, including repellant sprays, netting, and more, they tend to find a way to breach your security system every time. In a new line of defense, there is now intelligent clothing that has been created to repel mosquitoes.

The Argentinian brand Indarra, which can be purchased online, produces these garments for men, women and children. Their line of jackets are treated with natural extracts of lemongrass. This is completely odorless for humans, but it keeps the bugs away for at least 5 years (50 washes). These products are already very popular in South America, especially in the warm and humid regions of Brazil where mosquitoes can be a huge problem.

© Mike Saechang

The new Motorola Photon 4G for Sprint will definitely make its mark among the other gadgets out in the market. It has a higher 4G speed and it will be available for Sprint users from July 31.
The trump card for Photon over the other gadgets is the download speed which averaged at around 6 Mbps and gave a top download speed of 10.2 Mbps whereas the other 4G devices have just managed to give speeds of around 3 Mbps only. It also offers an Android 2.3 Gingerbread with a Dual Core 1 Ghz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor which gives it unparalleled smooth interface among the other gadgets in its league.
The plus of this phone compared to the other gadgets is its ability to turn into a computer with the addition of a Bluetooth keyboard and the screen can turn into a wired HDMI keyboard and a two button mouse when the device is docked in the HD cradle.