Arturo Fernandez/Juice

Kristin Rodda sells custom made poker tables out of her home in Pleasantville.

It started with a bet. A friend brought a picture of a poker table to Kristin and David Rodda and told them: "I bet you can't build something like that." Kristin, 35, who does interior design and remodeling, and David, 39, a computer manager for an engineering firm, are both the crafty, handy types. They got to work. "Over the weekend, we built one," said Kristin Rodda.

That was October 2003. Today, the Pleasantville couple owns DK Poker Tables. They've designed and built almost 280 high-end poker tables for people all over the World, including poker professional Daniel Negreanu, a guy who has raked in some $7 million playing cards. "I'm not sure how he found us. On the Web I guess," Rodda said. "We hand-delivered it to Vegas, to his house. We even met his mom." Octagon tables start at $2,500, oval tables at $2,900. Custom features and add-ons bump up the price. One guy wanted (and got) a photo of a deer he just killed imprinted in the table's cloth. Rodda said they can carve designs into the wood and make any kind of table a customer wants, including details like the color of the felt, vinyl rails and wood stain. "I don't think we've ever built the same table twice," she said. Most of the orders come from the Internet, but Kristin Rodda said she and her husband are trying to sell more tables locally. They appear at area home shows, and have run ads and TV commercials. Turn-around time for a table is usually six to eight weeks. The physical building of the table only takes about a week, but the detailing and painting and ordering the custom cloth and colors take some extra time, Rodda said. Rodda said they've invested a lot of money in high-quality equipment, so they're hoping the poker craze sticks around.

"Pool tables have been around forever, so hopefully poker tables will be here to stay, too," she said. "This is still a hobby on the side for us right now. Our goal is to do this full-time."