Good form at the table
Good form at the table: small courtesies that keep the room calm
Manners at the tables are less about rules than about attention. Here are the habits of our best-loved regulars.
A word first
Why manners matter in a quiet room
A casino room of six tables lives on its atmosphere. There is no loud music to cover a raised voice and no crowd to lose oneself in, and so every guest becomes a part of the sound of the room. Good manners are therefore not a luxury here; they are the principal furnishing.
Nothing below is difficult. Noel Novak and the other croupiers have noticed that the habits of the most welcome guests are all very small ones, and they are set down here in the hope that new visitors will find them useful rather than strict.
If you make a slip, nobody will mind. A croupier will correct it with a smile, and the table will carry on. That has been our approach since the first night, and I expect it will stay so.
Small courtesies
Fourteen habits of welcome guests
- Greet the croupier and the players already seated, then take your place without moving anyone's chips.
- Keep your voice at the level of the person beside you, and never louder than the room.
- Wait until a hand is complete before starting a story, and finish the story before the next hand begins.
- Praise good play aloud; keep opinions about poor play to yourself.
- Leave the cards and the chips where the croupier has placed them, and ask before touching either.
- Do not comment on another player's decision, even in a friendly way, unless they have asked.
- Pass a coat, a cup or a chair with a word of thanks; courtesy is never wasted upstairs.
- If your phone must ring, take it to the landing before it does and not afterwards.
- Give a newcomer a smile, and offer your seat to a guest who has been waiting longer than you.
- Treat the croupier as the host of the table, not as an employee to be corrected.
- Share the rail with those who are watching; stand a little back and let everyone see.
- Hold back your own excitement when another player is disappointed; a little quiet goes a long way.
- Thank the table when you rise, and say goodnight to the staff on the way down.
- Take any grievance to the floor manager, never to the person you feel has caused it.