Top (Two-Top, Four-Top)
A top is a table described by the number of people at it: a two-top seats two, a four-top seats four. The word covers both the table and the party, so "the six-top on 14" means a party of six sitting at table 14. A two-top is also called a deuce.
Tops are how a room gets sold. A host stand spends the night matching parties to tables by top size, and a floor plan heavy in four-tops seats a different book from one heavy in deuces even at identical seat counts. Two two-tops pushed together will take a party of four; one four-top will not take two parties of two.
The mismatch is where covers get lost. A five-top seated at a six-top burns a seat for the whole turn, and a room full of couples booked into four-tops runs out of tables long before it runs out of chairs.
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