Birch & Harbour
Card Lounge
The Card Lounge gives the poker evening somewhere to slow down — a comfortable space for conversation before, between or after time at the poker tables.
Chairs that face the room, not the felt
The lounge is the part of the building where nobody is holding a decision. Three ways to sit in it.
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Banquettes along the half-wall
The lounge seating runs against the low half-wall that separates the 32-seat dining room from the poker room, on birch plywood banquettes built for a long sit. From there the eight tables are visible without being in the middle of them.
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Chairs pulled back from the table floor
The dining room's 32 seats on birch plywood banquettes sit behind a low half-wall from the playing floor, so a conversation about a hand can finish without three people leaning across a rail. Players who want to talk through a pot do it there, with the cards face-down back at the table.
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The water-and-coffee end of the host desk
A self-serve still water and drip coffee station sits at the end of the host desk, closest to the lounge seating. Drip coffee is C$3.50 and a pot of loose-leaf tea C$4 if you would rather order from the dining room. Nothing on that counter needs a server, so nobody has to leave a conversation to get a glass of water.
Eight tables pitch the cards; the lounge is where the hand gets discussed.
Breaks between poker sessions
What is waiting when you step away from the felt.
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A fresh setup goes on every table after four hours of play Cards are pitched by hand between setups
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The Tuesday hold'em tournament breaks once, for 15 minutes
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Sunday's deep-stack runs 30-minute levels with a dinner break long enough to order from the kitchen
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A runner carries food from the kitchen to the rail between hands
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Still water and drip coffee are self-serve at the end of the host desk
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Forty numbered lockers line the corridor to the washrooms Brass tags are handed out at the host desk
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The chalkboard by the door names the dealer currently on break
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The board is nearly rubbed out
By the last of the Tuesday hold'em tournament's 20-minute blind levels, the chalk board beside the host desk is mostly rubbed out, with a few names left in the corner. The conversation moves off the table floor and settles.
