Table etiquette

May not be. The guy who was drinking that beer would be taking lap dances. He may come back and finish that beer.
Guy who was drinking that beer might have left the club. Waitress need to pick the bottle.

That depends. If the drink is covered with a napkin, the seat is still in use. In the case of a beer bottle, most guy will stick a napkin in the top of the bottle.

Nice guys, they already bought you a drink for when you sit down! =~)

While we’ve never seen the covered drink signal in person that would normally tell me someone plans to come back to that table BUT at the same time unless there’s a sign on the table that it’s reserved it’s fair game if it’s empty. Especially if you get up and leave the table empty when it’s very busy. I personally would never leave an open container out of my sight anywhere in public. When we get up to go get LD’s we take our drinks with us and understand that we’ll be looking for another seat when we come back. What I always do is simply ask the people on either side if they know if someone is sitting there.

Reserved signs don't mean anything if they are at every table.

In clubs in Detroit, the reserved signs are just there until you give the bouncer a tip for the “ability” to sit at the table. The bouncer will take the reserved sign off the table if you give them $20.

If you sit at the bar or in perverts row by the stage, there usually isn’t any requirement to tip the bouncer any money.

Napkins on drinks is pretty universal. If the place is packed I'll do a quick check with people sitting nearby like seaboard said. The one person in recent memory who decided to make am issue out of a seat had nothing sitting there, his friends said nothing, and the club was nearly empty.

If you need a seat, just do what you have to without being a dick about it.

I need to learn my table manors for sure

If the drink looks "old," there's no napkin or something similar on the drink, and there are no personal items like a jacket, then I would take the seat. When you see a waitress, ask her to take the old drink. If a guy comes back claiming that it is his seat, I would move if he or his friends looked like they could kick my ass and if I couldn't talk my way out of it. But if he's a wimpy loser, then I'd tell him it's my seat now.

The small fork is for the salad.

Tipping bouncers? Fuck that shit. Never done it and never will. Fuck those steroid-using, 3-inch dick pieces of shit.