Format 04 · Seated
A dinner with three hands of cards in the middle of it
A seated dinner interleaved with short, friendly poker-themed rounds for symbolic chips, paced so the conversation never stops.
- 16 to 70 adult guests
- Three to five short rounds
- Symbolic chips at every place setting
- Up to 4 hours including dinner
The problem this solves
Seated dinners have a dead hour. This fills it.
Every long dinner has the same shape: a bright, talkative first course, a slump somewhere after the mains, then a slow recovery towards coffee. Guests are fixed in their seats and the conversation has already been had.
A poker-themed dinner interrupts that on purpose. Between courses, a croupier deals a short, friendly round at each seat block — ten minutes, explained as it goes, played for symbolic chips that sit beside the cutlery. Then the next course lands and the table is talking again, this time about something that just happened.
It is the most sociable format we run and the least physically demanding on a venue, because nothing has to be cleared and nobody has to stand up.
The running order
How the courses and the rounds interleave
A four-course example. We build the real one with you and your caterer, and the timings flex with the kitchen.
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19:00
Arrival and chip placement
Age checked at the door. Guests find an identical stack of unmarked chips at their place, plus a card explaining in two lines that chips are scorekeeping only.
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19:30
First course, then Round One
The croupier introduces the format in ninety seconds and deals a deliberately slow teaching hand. Nobody is put on the spot and nobody is eliminated.
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20:15
Main course, then Round Two
Pace picks up. By now the table knows the rules well enough to argue about them, which is the point.
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21:10
Seat rotation
The host moves a few guests between seat blocks so the room mixes. This is the single most useful thing we do at a corporate dinner.
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21:40
Dessert, then the final round
The last hand is played with the whole room watching the two leading tables, which is as tense as a chipless evening ever gets.
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22:15
Count, leaderboard, coffee
Chips are counted, the leaderboard is read, non-cash keepsakes are presented, and the crew strikes quietly while coffee is served.
What we bring
Our side of the evening
- Seating and seat-block plan built with your venue
- One table captain per seat block, in uniform
- Unmarked symbolic chips, identical allocation per guest
- Cards, shufflers, markers and table linens
- A written running order agreed with your caterer
- Printed two-line explanation card at each place
- Leaderboard, count and closing presentation
What stays with you
Your side of the evening
- Venue, tables, linen and the dinner itself
- Food and beverage service and any alcohol licence
- Guest list, invitations and age verification support at the door
- Any non-cash keepsakes you want presented
- Music, speeches and the rest of the programme
Said plainly to every table
This is strictly offline event entertainment. There is no real-money gambling, no betting, no cash prizes, and no online casino service. No buy-in, no top-up, no settlement, no slot machines on the floor — and no guests under 18+.
“We have run the same partner dinner for nine years. This was the first one where people stayed past eleven. The rotation between courses was what did it.”
Next step
Send us your menu and we will send you a running order
Tell us the date, the guest count and roughly when the kitchen plans to serve. We will propose where the rounds fit and quote the crew you need.
- up to 120 guests
- up to 4 hours
- Symbolic chips only
- 18+ guests