This is really not as hard as it seems. It's just a matter of looking at it right.

Ok, there are 3 rows & 3 columns, even though there are only 5 cells. Work left to right, top to bottom. Sound easy? It is! Here we go.

Open your table.

First row:
Open your row.
Looking left to right, we see 3 cells, so just put in 3 cells: "Left", "Top" & "Right". So far, so good.

Ok, now the 1st & 3rd cells are both 3 rows high - just add rowspan=3 to those 2 cells.
Close your row.

You just "defined" 3 columns with those 3 cells.
Congratulations, you're done with the "hard" part. "I am?" yep

Now look at the second row. There is only one new cell.
So open a row, put in one cell ("Middle"), close your row.

Now look at the third row. There is only one new cell.
So open a row, put in one cell ("Bottom"), close your row.

Well, we made 3 columns, we made 3 rows, we made all 5 cells. Hey, wait a minute - that was way too easy!
Close your table.

Important concept:
We only have to put the width in 1 cell for each column.
All cells in the same column are the same width, as if they were lined up with a ruler or with lines on a sheet of graph paper.
Each column will be as wide as the widest cell in that column.

Likewise, we only have to put height in 1 cell for each row.
All cells in the same row are the same height.
Each row will be as high as the highest cell in that row.

When you use rowspan &/or colspan to make "supercells", those cells will have the sum of the height &/or width of the cells they span.

Here's the whole code:
<table align="center" border=5 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0>
<tr>
<td rowspan=3 width="80" align="center">
Left
</td>
<td align="center" height="80" width="160">
Top
</td>
<td rowspan=3 width="80" align="center">
Right
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td height="160" align="center">
Middle
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" height="80">
Bottom</td>
</tr></table>

Once again, repeat after me:
"I love tables!"
"Tables are my friend!"
"I am ze mighty cree-ay-tor!"

Next, we'll do the "nested table" approach.

Gnubee