Planning a Casino Royale theme party? Build it around the 2006 film’s black-tie poker nights. It works for a winter party and just as well for New Year’s Eve, when the dinner jackets and the champagne are coming out anyway. (The 1967 spoof is not on the guest list.)

The short version: the film’s casino dress code is black tie. Bond wears a black single-button dinner jacket with a white shirt and a black bow tie; Vesper wears a purple evening gown on the first night of the game and a black one on the second. For your party, keep that standard or let guests borrow the colors and details more loosely. The game is no-limit Texas hold’em. The drink is the Vesper, and the food on screen is caviar and champagne.

We ranked nine ideas by how much of the film each one brings into the room. Start with #1 and add whatever suits your evening. The film supplies the references; the “At your party” boxes are our own hosting advice. For the real places behind the casino and the hotel, see our Casino Royale filming locations.

9 to 6: Small Blinds

9. The Dealer’s Waistcoat: Hire Yourself

The dealer at the Montenegro table works in a black waistcoat printed with playing cards. Nobody at the table mentions it. It’s a one-person costume that doesn’t require buying a dinner suit.

At your party: Whoever deals wears the card-print waistcoat. That person also gets the rules sheet.

8. The Other Players: Ten Seats, Ten Characters

Bond and Le Chiffre aren’t alone at the table. The film seats ten, and its cast list names the seven strangers: Infante, Tomelli, Madame Wu, Gallardo, Kaminofsky, Fukutu and Gräfin von Wallenstein, plus Felix Leiter. Costume designer Lindy Hemming dressed them in the kind of evening wear the very richest could have tailored, from a Russian player with a mink collar to an Argentinian whose suit has gold thread running through it.

At your party: Put the ten names on place cards and let guests draw. Anyone who finds plain black tie dull now has the film’s permission to add one loud detail: a faux fur collar, a thread of gold, a jacket nobody else would wear. Borrow the clothes, not the accents.

7. The Opening Titles: Decorate in Card Suits

Casino Royale’s opening titles skip the women’s silhouettes that earlier Bond title sequences were known for. Designer Daniel Kleinman built them from playing-card graphics instead: card suits and patterns, a club standing in for a puff of gun smoke, hearts where you’d expect blood. He took the idea from the cover of Fleming’s 1953 first edition, a playing card bordered by red hearts.

At your party: Hearts, clubs, diamonds and spades on the place cards, the napkins and the bar card, in red and black on white. Suits beat spy props.

6. The Final Hand: Rig the Deck for Midnight

The tournament ends with four players turning over hands that keep getting better. The board shows the ace of spades, the ace of hearts, and the eight, six and four of spades. Fukutu shows the king and queen of spades for a flush. Infante shows a pair of eights for eights full of aces. Le Chiffre shows an ace and a six for aces full of sixes. Then Bond turns over the five and seven of spades: a straight flush, four to the eight. Mathis puts the pot at 115 million dollars. The film’s poker adviser, Tom Sambrook, told Polygon, “It’s not representative of an average hand.”

At your party: Stack the deck. Lay out the five board cards, then deal the king and queen of spades to one player, two eights (not the eight of spades) to the next, the ace of clubs or diamonds and any six except the six of spades to whoever drew Le Chiffre, and the five and seven of spades to Bond. Turn them over in that order. This is a performance, not a real hand, so play it after the game is over.

5 to 3: Big Blinds

5. Caviar and Champagne: The Late Dinner

The film gives you caviar and champagne and declines to plan the rest of the buffet. After the last hand, Bond and Vesper sit down to a late dinner in the hotel restaurant (filmed at the Grandhotel Pupp) with caviar and champagne on the table. Earlier, in the Bahamas, Bond’s room-service order pairs Beluga caviar with a bottle of Bollinger (that order is on our drink orders list).

At your party: Caviar or any good roe, with toast or blinis, and champagne on ice. Our sources name no other dishes at either meal, so everything else on the table is your call. For the bottle, start with Bollinger.

4. The Vesper: The Drink Everyone Will Ask For

Bond orders it at the poker table and later names it after Vesper; both moments are covered in the top entry of our drink orders list. You’ll need gin, vodka and Lillet Blanc, a modern substitute for the Kina Lillet he asks for (the gin, the Lillet).

For a manageable party bar, add three more from the film: the vodka martini Bond orders after losing to Le Chiffre, the large Mount Gay with soda from the Bahamas, and the Château Angélus from dinner on the train.

At your party: The bar card can stop at four drinks: the Vesper, a vodka martini, a Mount Gay and soda, and a red Bordeaux. Put the Vesper first.

3. Vesper’s Gowns: The Casino Royale Dress Code for Women

Vesper wears two evening gowns to the game, and a third dress later in the film:

The purple gown. On the first night, a deep purple Roberto Cavalli gown that Bond picked for her, to pull the other players’ eyes off their cards: a halter neck, a low back and a plunging neckline edged in crystals. She’s still wearing it after the stairwell fight.
The black gown. For the second day of the game, a black evening gown made by Versace to costume designer Lindy Hemming’s design.
The red dress. In Venice she wears red, a nod to the film Don’t Look Now. It isn’t casino evening wear, so treat it as a Venice reference.

With the casino gowns she wears the Algerian love knot necklace that jeweler Sophie Harley made for the role.

At your party: The film’s version is floor length, and that’s the standard if your invitation says black tie. For a looser night, borrow the colors instead. Purple: an evening or cocktail dress in the gown’s color, without copying its cut. Black: a black evening dress with one statement necklace. Red: any red dress, for a guest dressing for Venice instead of Montenegro.

2 to 1: All In

2. The Dinner Jacket: The Casino Royale Dress Code for Men

When Bond tells Vesper he already has a dinner jacket, she has another one waiting in his room: “There are dinner jackets and dinner jackets; this is the latter.” It’s tailored, and she says she sized him up when they met. It’s a black Brioni, single-breasted, with one button and silk-faced peak lapels. Under it go a white Turnbull & Asser dress shirt and a black silk shantung bow tie, also Turnbull & Asser. He wears braces, with neither a cummerbund nor a waistcoat.

At your party: Black tie, one button, peak lapels, no cummerbund. Any black tuxedo already in the closet will do. Get the fit right and skip the hunt for the label.

1. The Poker Table: No-Limit Texas Hold’em

Fleming’s 1953 novel had Bond playing baccarat; the film switched to no-limit Texas hold’em, which producer Michael G. Wilson called the big-stakes game of the day. Le Chiffre’s tournament seats ten players, each buying in for 10 million dollars. When Bond loses his stake, Vesper refuses to authorize another 5 million, and Felix Leiter stakes him instead.

How to play, quickly:

The dealer button marks the nominal dealer position. Move it one seat clockwise after every hand, even if one host deals all night. The two players to the button’s left post the small and big blinds, forced bets that start the pot.
Each player gets two cards face down. Betting starts with the player left of the big blind. On your turn, fold (give up the hand), call (match the current bet) or raise (increase it).
The flop: three shared cards face up. From here on, betting starts with the first player still in, left of the button. With no bet in front of you, you can check (pass) or bet.
The turn: a fourth shared card, then betting.
The river: a fifth shared card, then the last round of betting.
Showdown: each player makes the best five-card hand from their two cards and the five shared cards, using both, one or neither of their own. If everyone else folds earlier, the last player in wins without showing. Identical hands split the pot.

No-limit means that on your turn you can bet any amount up to your whole stack (“all in”). The smallest opening bet is the big blind. A raise must add at least as much as the last bet or raise: if someone bets 100 and the next player raises to 250, the next raise has to go to at least 400. A player without enough chips can still go all in for less.

If a player is all in, they can win only as much from each opponent as they put in themselves. Any further betting goes into a side pot that only the players who paid into it can win.

When the game is down to two players, the button posts the small blind and acts first before the flop, then last on every later round.

Hands from best to worst: straight flush (five in a row, same suit; a royal flush is the top one), four of a kind, full house (three of a kind plus a pair), flush (five of the same suit), straight (five in a row), three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high card.

At your party: Same chip stack for everyone, played for chips, not money. Allow one rebuy. For the film’s version, the busted guest has to talk someone else into staking it. Anyone who insists on baccarat has read the book.

Cashing Out

Start with drinks and a practice hand. Play, pause for food, then clear the table for the staged final hand; on New Year’s Eve, save it for midnight. If you only do one thing, deal the cards. If you do two, put on the jacket.