The best multi-game tables

The fundamental problem with combo tables is that most of them try to do too much on too small a cabinet. At seven feet, the Pockey is large enough that each of its three games has a playing field worth having, rather than a token version of one.

Three games is also the right number. Every additional game listed on a combo table box is a game sharing the same cabinet, and past three or four you are looking at overlay boards rather than built-in games. A well-built 3-in-1 is almost always a better purchase than a 13-in-1 at the same price.

What you are still giving up, honestly: the pool game is a smaller-than-standard table with an engineered bed, and the ping pong is a conversion-style top rather than a sprung table. If either of those is the main game, buy it properly instead.

The flip mechanism is what makes this format work day to day. Rather than lifting and storing separate tops, you flip the table over to change games, which takes seconds and means there is nothing to find somewhere to put.

Six feet is smaller than our overall pick, so each game is correspondingly more compressed. For a family playing casually rather than competitively, that is a reasonable trade for the lower price and smaller footprint.

This is the combo table we would recommend to most families who are not sure how much any single game will be played.

There is a genuine audience for the high-count combo table and it is children. Kids want variety far more than they want fidelity, they rotate through games rapidly, and a table with seven options gets played daily where a single serious table would sit idle.

Be clear-eyed about what seven games means: a few are built into the cabinet and the rest are overlay boards. That is not a criticism if variety is the goal — it is just what you are buying.

For a playroom or a family with children across a range of ages, this format earns its place. For adults, it does not.

This is the format we would steer most adults toward if a combo is the answer at all: a 7-foot pool table with a table tennis top, which is the same idea as buying a pool table and a conversion top — only sold together and designed to fit.

Because it is doing two things rather than seven, both get a proper playing field. The pool side is a real 7ft table with the usual engineered-bed caveat, and the ping pong side is a full-size conversion surface.

The trade is the same as any conversion setup: somewhere to store the table tennis top, and a slightly firmer bounce than a sprung table.

Full-size combo tables are too tall for younger children, which is the same problem as with any full-size table — they end up playing with their arms raised and lose interest.

A 48-inch combo table solves height and reach together, and the smaller playing fields matter far less to a child than they would to an adult.

For a playroom, this is the right purchase. It will be outgrown, and at this price that is fine.

Combo tables are an unusual purchase in that a lot of buyers are not sure whether the format suits them. Buying at the entry level is a reasonable way to find out.

Expect lighter construction and more basic components across every game. What you learn is whether the household genuinely rotates between games or settles on one — and if it settles on one, you now know which single-purpose table to buy.