Eight tables on the line side
Five open, three booked, a shift list in pencil, and chips that stop being worth anything the moment the shift ends.
How the shifts work at the tables
The day shift is bright and slow and the best time to learn a game you do not know. The night shift fills every table and stays that way until about nine.
Three tables come off the shift list; the other five are first-come. A booked table is held for a quarter of an hour past the shift start.
Somebody is always walking the floor. Ask them for a rules card, a fourth player, or a table further from the taps.
Five hundred
The house game, taught on the day shift, four to a table.
Canasta
Two tables most nights, decks supplied, partners found for you.
Crib
Thursday nights, boards from the crib room upstairs.
How the floor is divided up
Four things new players ask
How many to a table?
Six at the most, four for crib and five hundred.
Can I come on my own?
Half the room does. The floor will find you a table that is short a player.
Do you run competitions?
A summer ladder with a running score. No entry fee, no prize money, a tin of peaches for the winner.
Whose cards do we use?
Ours, always. Personal decks stay off the tables.