A Thursday with the Omaha regulars
Thursday is the quiet night at the felt room, and the Omaha table is its heart. Six regulars, one patient dealer and a plate of yellowbelly to begin.
If you ask Lisa Rossi which night she enjoys most, she says Thursday without thinking. The crowd is small, the game is Omaha and nobody is in a rush. The same six players have been sitting down together for years, and they arrive early enough to eat before the tables open.
The dinner ritual
The table orders the fish. Pan-fried yellowbelly with lemon butter is the default, though a few prefer the Murray cod. Dessert is generally lemon delicious, and the kitchen has learned to bake six at once.
Why Omaha
Four hole cards instead of two means more possibilities, and the regulars say that makes it a conversational game. People talk through the hands, laugh at the near-misses, and explain to newcomers why a hand that looked strong on the flop was never going to survive.
Making room for a stranger
A seventh seat is always kept free. The regulars have a habit of looking up when someone new walks in, and the stranger is waved into the empty chair before they can think about it. Several have become regulars themselves.
The last hand
The table finishes at ten, whatever the state of play. Chips are counted back, tea is poured and the six head out together, still arguing about a hand from earlier. Nobody takes anything home but a story, which is the way it was always meant to be. Lisa Rossi puts the lid on the chip tray, Noel Saunders switches off the lamps one by one, and the building goes quiet until Tuesday.
Joining the table
Turn up on a Thursday by half past six and ask Louise Georgiou for the Omaha table. If there is a seat, you are in. If there is not, you will be offered a cup of tea and told how long the wait is likely to be, which is never very long, because nobody here has ever hurried a hand.