Poker night is more than just a night of playing card games. We all know that it’s a night of fun with the boys and girls while sharing delicious food and drinks.

1. Poker Party Food Suggestions On A Budget
2. Poker Themed Party Food Ideas
3. Poker Party Food Suggestions Ideas
4. Poker Party Food Suggestions List

When it comes to food for poker night, it’s easy to fall into the trap of serving the usual salty, fatty, or sugary fare that ends up on the table.

In most cases, most people won’t mind. However, if you want to have that one poker night to remember or become the undisputed “best poker night host”, you’d better upgrade your poker game night snacks.

Lucky for you, we are here to help.

All it takes to transform your dinner table from 'regular ol' decor' to 'totally on-theme' is a pack of cards or two. Hot-glued or rubber-banded to disposable cups, cards turn into drink markers. Though maybe best known as one of the best Super Bowl party foods, seven-layer dip (you know, the one with refried beans, sour cream, avocado, tomatoes, cheese, black olives and scallions) is great for any occasion. For the Easy Seven-Layer Dip recipe, click here. Honey-Wheat Pretzel Twists Snack on these to satisfy your craving for sweet, salty, and crunchy. Unlike the pale, sugar-laden honey-wheat pretzel twists sold in bags at the grocery store, these are.

Food for Poker Night Recipes

We have scoured the internet for the best game night snack ideas so you don’t have to. Don’t worry these recipes won’t require the skills of a gourmet chef since they’re relatively easy to prepare. However, you can trust that they’re downright delicious.

Without further ado…

Philly Cheesesteak Nachos (Prep Time: 20 mins.)

When it comes to poker game snacks, it’s hard to go wrong with serving nachos. Upgrade the traditional nachos by combining it with a fan-favorite sandwich, the Philly Cheesesteak.

Check out this bound-to-be-favorite nacho recipe from All Recipes:

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 large onion, diced
• 1/2 pound shaved rib-eye, chopped
• 1 (18 ounce) package restaurant-style tortilla chips
• 1 (8 fl. oz.) jar processed cheese spread (such as Kraft® Cheez Whiz®)
• 2 fresh jalapeno peppers, sliced

Directions:

Poker Party Food Suggestions On A Budget

• Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onion; cook and stir until softened, 5 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. Cook rib-eye in the same skillet, stirring occasionally, until browned and juices have evaporated, 5 to 10 minutes. Stir onion back into the skillet.
• Place a handful of tortilla chips on each plate. Spoon rib-eye and onion mixture over chips; top with cheese spread and jalapeno slices.

If jalapenos are not available, you can use pickled jalapenos as a substitute.

Chicago Italian Beef Sandwich (Prep and Cook Time: 3 hrs. 40 mins.)

If you want to serve something with more bite, this recipe for the Chicago Italian Beef Sandwich from none other than Guy Fieri of The Food Network fame should get the job done.

Be sure to start preparing and cooking earlier because this recipe takes a lot of time.

Ingredients:

• 4 pounds, top round with fat cap
• 3 tablespoons Italian seasoning
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons fresh cracked black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon red chili flakes
• 3 tablespoons bacon fat, or canola oil
• 3 yellow onions, chopped
• 1 cup garlic, whole cloves
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup beef stock
• 2 bay leaves
• 6 sourdough baguette rolls halved, toasted
• 1 cup chopped giardiniera vinaigrette vegetables
• 1 cup jarred red sweet peppers

Directions:

• Rub meat with dry ingredients, cover and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.
• Preheat oven to 275 degrees F.
• Add meat to a roasting pan with bacon fat, add onions and garlic, sauté for 15 minutes, deglaze with wine, and add Worcestershire sauce, beef stock, and bay leaves.
• Place roasting pan in the oven and cook for 3 hours, uncovered, or until an instant-read thermometer registers 135 degrees F in the center. Remove, let cool, then slice very thin.
• Cool broth in roasting pan and remove the fat that rises to the top. Strain.
• Reheat the broth, and add the sliced meat. Place some meat on each toasted roll, ladle with some broth and top with giardiniera vegetables and red peppers.

Slow Cooker Ranch Chicken Tacos (Prep and Cook Time: 4 hrs. 15 mins.)

This is not the tacos that we all know and love. Instead of the ever-familiar salsa, we will be using ranch.

This recipe from Who Needs a Cape is guaranteed to be a hit with your poker buddies.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• ½ cup water
• 2 tablespoons taco seasoning (or 1 packet of taco seasoning)
• 1 packet of ranch seasoning
• 8-10 small taco-sized flour tortillas
• ranch dressing, to taste
• 2-3 cups of cole slaw, without sauce
• ½ red onion, thinly sliced
• ¼ cup cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
• Optional: shredded cheese, diced avocado, diced tomato

Instructions:

• Place chicken breasts in slow cooker. Pour in water, then sprinkle chicken with taco seasoning and ranch seasoning. Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-7 hours.
• About 20 minutes before serving, use a slotted spoon to transfer chicken to a bowl, shred with 2 forks, then return to slow cooker and stir.
• When ready to serve, fill tortillas with shredded chicken, then drizzle with ranch dressing.
• Top with slaw, red onions, cilantro, and any additional desired toppings such as shredded cheese, avocado, or tomatoes. Serve immediately.

Feeling Hungry Yet?

All of these poker snacks are guaranteed to be delicious and will make your guests ask for more. These foods for poker night recipes are very easy to prepare and cook, and the ingredients are all easy to get.

What do you think of these recipes? Do you have a favorite poker night snack recipe? Feel free to share in the comments!

For more fun articles and tips about card games, visit CardGameInfo for a great collection of card game blogs.

Is there a better way to lose money than sitting around drinking beers and playing poker with your boys on a Saturday night?

Of course, we’d all like to take home the pot at the end of the night – who doesn’t want an extra $200-$300 padding the wallet, but the concept of having a poker night itself is enough of a distraction from the monotonous day-to-day life that it makes any financial loss seem worthwhile.

In other words, poker can be one of a few motivating factors that get you up in the morning and get you to sludge through that mind-numbing routine people call a work week – and that’s when you lose.

But if you’re fortunate enough to win, poker night becomes better than New Year’s Eve or whatever “fun” holiday you can think of. (Seriously, who needs to be squished in a compact room with a bunch of drunkards you don’t know counting down from 10 to 1? Excuse my bluntness, but I’ll take the money and run every damn time.)

Aside from winning or losing, guys like poker nights because they are calm. There’s no obscene behavior from random people you don’t know; there’s no wild and uncontrolled screaming; there’s nobody ordering you to do something you don’t want to do; and there’s certainly no bad music being played in the background.

That’s what happens when 5-6 guys – or more depending if you’re doing multiple tables – who share similar interests and respect one another gather around a table to play poker.

It’s the bro version of a Thanksgiving dinner – everyone is cooperative and polite as long as everyone gets a plate and a place at the table.

Well, cooperative until there’s a dispute about the rules of the game – a staple of any poker night. That’s why it’s important that who’s ever hosting to create a set of house rules and print out whatever stuff can be found online that is valuable information. This hopefully will negate most arguments and conflicts – although as the night moves on and alcohol continues to be consumed, you can never truly predict how guys will behave.

With all that said, here are some of the essentials for having a poker night with your boys:

Alcohol (preferably top shelf liquor)

Going off that earlier point that poker night can serve as a quasi climax, or high point, of the week: there needs to be some respectable liquor brought and served. I’m talking Red Label or Jameson, at the very least. I didn’t work my ass off all week long to spend my three hours of complete freedom sipping on $10 vodka or gin – or worse, Busch Light.

If you’re going to do beer, I feel like cans are unacceptable. This isn’t a frat party – there’s no pong table being wheeled out once you’re eliminated. That means you need to have something that’s strong and tastes good to numb your sorrows.

Chewing Tobacco

I’m a big time believer that once you sit down, you shouldn’t get up (unless you have to piss). That means no group cigarette breaks – they ruin the pacing of the game and isolate non smokers. The happy medium is an endless supply of chewing tobacco. That way everyone who wants to get their fix can whenever they want without having to pause the game.

Plus, doesn’t it just feel like a badass move to say “I’ll re-raise ya” and then spit into a can. I feel like that’s always one of the best moments of any poker night.

Cigars

I swear we’ll get to some actual poker essentials soon enough – like the materials you need to play the game, but for now we’re trying to set the perfect mood.

Cigars go a long way in a poker night because they burn forever and they can be a topic of conversation within themselves in case the well of discussion runs dry.

Furthermore, they’re another good thing to have to keep players asses in their seats and not itching to go smoke a cigarette. Seriously, I hate when a game breaks for 15-20 minutes or when an individual player takes to automatically folding 3-4 hands.

True, this isn’t the World Series of Poker, but come on. Let’s have some discipline here boys.

Poker Case

This needs to have at least four different colored chips, a dealer chip and two fresh decks of cards. If any of these items are missing, so is the integrity of your poker night.

Seriously, if you’re so cheap that you can’t fork out $40-50 to buy one of these cases, then I question your manhood.

Poker Themed Party Food Ideas

It’s a solid investment no matter how you look at it. It’s reusable, it makes others happy and it’s an essential part of playing a game that makes you relax and feel good.

Literally a win-win-win type of situation. You can’t go wrong.

Note: having a second case if you have multiple tables is a good idea. Inspecting the decks doesn’t hurt too. It sounds snobby but you are playing for cash here.

Boxed or Bagged Food

Some guys might here poker night and say fire up the grill. Wrong. 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.

Like anything else, adding food can be a distraction to the night – don’t let it be.

Background Movie

I know I mentioned music somewhere up above in the introduction, but it has no place at a poker game. First, it’s distracting. Second, it’s loud regardless of where the speakers are in the room. And third, it creates more unnecessary arguments amongst players.

How can you avoid all of this you might wonder? DON’T PLAY MUSIC AT YOUR POKER NIGHT. It’s really that simple.

If one of your players wants it, tell him to go to the club.

Put on a sporting event and let that be your background noise if you deem having background noise a necessity (I don’t). If sports isn’t an option, throw on a background movie.

Any Martin Scorcese film should do just fine – Goodfellas, Casino, The Departed and, most recently added, The Wolf Of Wall Street. All of these movies are about greed in some form or another and they teeter on being three hours long. In other words, they are meant to be played during a poker game at a low volume.

I don’t know about you but after I lose, there’s nothing more consoling than seeing DeNiro and Pesci go at it or Leo, Damon, Jack and Wahlberg. I love that shit.

Money

Well, that’s why everyone comes to play in the first place, right? You can’t have a legit poker game with IOUs and crap like that. Everyone needs to bring cash and put it on the table before the cards are dealt. Otherwise you’d be better off playing Monopoly.

An empty house (or apartment)

More essential than money; the poker chips, the decks of cards and Martin Scorcese is the serenity of an open house or apartment.

Poker Party Food Suggestions Ideas

If your spouse or roommate is going to be there the whole time, you mine as well cancel for another weekend. There’s no reason to have the guys over for poker if you’re not going to have absolute freedom from everyday life.

Poker Party Food Suggestions List

Remember, poker night is like a vacation where you don’t have to go anywhere. Anything less and you’re not doing it right.