Book. . F (? 3 
 
 G)piglit]^i'. 
 
 CDSmiGKT DEPOSm 
 
 (;P0 
 
TO 
 
 HASSAN H. WHEELER, Esq. 
 
 OF 
 
 BROOKLYN, N. Y. 
 
 A "gextlemax player," who has 
 
 ENTERED, PASSED, AND RAISED MANY A 
 
 JACK-POT 
 
 THIS LITTLE VOLUME 
 IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR 
 
 
 0'^ 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 At Eastbourne^ on the English coast, one 
 evening in August last some gentlemen sat down 
 to a friendly game of poker. It was urged by 
 one of the party that a book should be written 
 in which the rules governing the game should 
 be succinctly expressed. Some one said it would 
 take a year to complete such a work. Where- 
 upon the writer said it could be done in a month. 
 This led to considerable discussion, and in a 
 bantering manner a bet was proposed and accept- 
 ed, that it could be written inside of four weeks. 
 This little book is the result of that wager. 
 
 W. J. Flore;n"ce. 
 
 Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, 
 September, 1891. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction 1 
 
 Okigin of the Game 10 
 
 The Game 12 
 
 .'^ Stakes 14 
 
 " Blind 15 
 
 " Hands 19 
 
 Playing a Hand Pat 20 
 
 The Hands Illustrated. 
 
 Hand No. 1 22 
 
 " 2 . . . 23 
 
 " 3 24 
 
 " 4 24 
 
 ff 5 25 
 
 " 6 26 
 
 " 7 27 
 
 " 8 28 
 
 " 9 29 
 
 '' 10 29 
 
 " 1 30 
 
 Drawing. 
 
 The Draw 31 
 
 // // TO Two Pairs 33 
 
 '' " " Threes 34 
 
 " " " A Full 35 
 
 '' " " A Bobtail 36 
 
 The Betting and Bluffing .,...•..• 36 
 
X CONTEKTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Jack-pots 38 
 
 Penalties in Pokeii 41 
 
 Varieties of Poker. 
 
 Straight Poker 42 
 
 Stud " 42 
 
 Whisky " 43 
 
 Poker Sharps 45 
 
 Marked Cards 47 
 
 Poker-Dice 51 
 
 Schenck on Poker 54 
 
 Schenck's Rules for Playing Poker ... 55 
 
 A Summary of Schenck's Rules .... 63 
 
 Value of Hands at Poker 69 
 
 No Pairs 69 
 
 One Pair , 70 
 
 Two Pairs 70 
 
 Threes or Triplets 71 
 
 The Straight 71 
 
 Flush 72 
 
 The Full 72 
 
 Fours 72 
 
 The Straight Flush 73 
 
 Recapitulation 73 
 
 How the Game is Played 74 
 
 The Elder Hand 82 
 
 Of Drawing • • • . 87 
 
 Probabilities 88 
 
 Technical Terms 89 
 
 The Jack-pot 91 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Steaddle 96 
 
 " Age 97 
 
 Advice to Players 98 
 
 Position and Probabilities 100 
 
 Playing the Pat Hand Ill 
 
 Pushing Your Luck 113 
 
 Questions at Poker 115 
 
 Table Stakes 116 
 
 The Freeze-out 117 
 
 The Widow, or Kitty 118 
 
 Buck 119 
 
 Poker Principles and Chance Laws, by Proctor. 121 
 
 Straight Poker 136 
 
 Stud " • . . = 137 
 
 Whisky " 137 
 
 MiSTIGRIS . 138 
 
 Tiger 138 
 
 Anecdotes on Poker 143 
 
DRAW POKER. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 *' We must speak by the card. 
 Or equivocation wUl undo us^ 
 
 Hamlet. Act F., Scene 1st. 
 
 The game of Poker has become popular dur- 
 ing the last two decades^ and is now known in 
 almost every civilized land. I have seen it 
 played by the donkey boys in the streets of 
 Cairo and by the Pi-Ute Indians on the plains 
 of Nevada. I was present on one occasion 
 when a poker party was made up of a reign- 
 ing monarchy a future king, and three princes 
 imperial. That might well be called a ^^ royal 
 flush.^^ 
 
 That the game which could hold such com- 
 petitors must be a fascinating one cannot be 
 denied. It is indeed held by some to be the 
 most dangerous of all games of cards, since it can 
 only be played for stakes ; but it must be remem- 
 bered that this is true of all games in which the 
 player conceals the value of the cards he holds. 
 
2 POKER. 
 
 To the objection that poker is an unsocial game, 
 since it admits of no partners, each participant 
 striving for himself alone, it is to be said that 
 for this very reason poker absorbs its players 
 with a deep fascination. Since one object of the 
 game is to mystify your adversaries as to the 
 value of your hand, and as all sorts of chaflE and 
 badinage are permitted, it cannot, after all, be 
 termed an unsociable amusement. Nonsense 
 may fly from tongue to tongue, fast and furious, 
 to any extent, providing it does not delay the 
 game. Then, where a hand shown down detects 
 its owner^s late futile attempt to mislead the 
 table a rousing laugh usually follows, so that the 
 fun is always kept up. Of course one may have 
 a bad-tempered or a churlish companion at table ; 
 but such a one usually gets the worst of it when 
 he betrays his peevishness. 
 
 As in any game of chance or speculation, 
 there are in poker opportunities to cheat. Long 
 before poker, however, was even invented, cheat- 
 ing at chance games was practiced by the unprin- 
 cipled. I have seen loaded dice taken from the 
 ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum and now 
 preserved in the Government Museum at Naples ; 
 so poker is not responsible for all the charges 
 brought against it. 
 
 It is well, however, to be careful about going 
 into a game of poker on an ocean steamer, in 
 
POKER, 
 
 a railway carriage, or a western hotel without 
 some knowledge of your companions. 
 
 But with a party of gentlemen and for limited 
 stakes, poker is a fascinating and harmless pas- 
 time. While a number of books have been writ- 
 ten about it, none can claim absolute authority, 
 though the rules of the game are really simple. 
 The deviations, alterations, and amended allow- 
 ances, and the fact that almost any party sitting 
 down to play may and often does make its own 
 rules about certain matters, render poker a by 
 no means easy game. Such rules, for example, 
 as those relating to the value of a ^^ straight, ^^ 
 playing ^^ around the corner,^' '^passing the 
 buck," ^^ blazes,"^ and ^^ jack-pots, "* are prede- 
 termined according to the desires of the players. 
 It is to fix the positive and long-accepted statutes 
 of the game that this book is written, the rules 
 herein set forth having been sanctioned by the 
 best custom wherever draw poker is played in its 
 integrity. 
 
 An authority on poker says : 
 
 ^^ Of all methods of livelihood or dissipation 
 or amusement, perhaps there is none about which 
 so much untruth passes current as about gam- 
 bling. Every now and then the newspapers take 
 to a run of gaming stories, and it is the excep- 
 tion when one of these has the least element of 
 fact to sustain it. To the mind of a certain 
 
POKER. 
 
 crude reportorial youth, in whose eyes the race- 
 course is a paradise and every turfman a hero, 
 all games of chance possess a peculiar fascina- 
 tion, and if he can fasten to a game of hearsay 
 some individual particular or personal anecdote, 
 he fancies that his fortune is made, and neither 
 thinks nor cares to discriminate in the matter of 
 accuracy or propriet}^ That there are degrees in 
 card-playing, or varying sensibilities among those 
 who with differing aims play at cards, or any 
 virtue in sticking to the truth, does not occur 
 to him, and as in this, like other fairy tales, it 
 is as easy to sj)eak of millions as of pennies, the 
 amounts at issue are only limited by the imagi- 
 nation of the recountant. Thus : ' The Col- 
 onel went him a thousand dollars, and the Judge 
 raised him five thousand better, and the Colonel 
 called, and the Judge only had a pair of deuces, 
 and^ — when, if there was any such passage at 
 all, the figures might be reduced to mills — still 
 largely to exceed the amounts actually at stake. 
 
 '^ Again, the writers of these gaming stories 
 seldom have any knowledge of the subject, and, 
 writing at second-hand, fall into the most egre- 
 gious errors ; and their readers, being for the 
 most part equally ignorant, form the most fan- 
 tastic notions of gambling and of the gambler, 
 both professional and amateur. 
 
 ^^The reputation for gambling long survives 
 
POKER. 
 
 the abandonment of the habit of gambling. It 
 is not generally known^ though it is a fact^ that 
 the most famous of the nonprofessional gamblers 
 of history^ Charles James ¥ox, did not play for 
 money after his forty-third year^ devoting the 
 most of his life to a useful^ eminent^ and bril- 
 liant public service, but never eradicating his 
 early reputation. Indeed, it can be set down as 
 a rule that nothing does its work so quickly and 
 so surely as high play. He who persists in it, 
 no matter how deep his pocket, will soon find 
 the bottom of it ; for the essential principle of 
 gambling is that it shall reach at least the meas- 
 ure of the player^ s capacity to lose. In most 
 cases it exceeds this, and in all, where it is con- 
 tinued, it outlasts the capacity to pay, involving 
 debt and ruin. Where these are not the finali- 
 ties among amateurs and men claiming to be 
 gentlemen, the abatement is to be found in an 
 ever-increasing conservatism, narrowing down 
 to merely nominal stakes or counters, and this is 
 the history of every game that does not end in 
 more or less of hardship and disgrace. 
 
 ^* Of professional gambling it can be said that 
 no avocation involves so much of despotism, 
 fickleness, and squalor. Eare, indeed, are the 
 instances where the professional gambler would 
 not be glad to lead a different life. He will tell 
 you, and truly, that he was not born a gambler ; 
 
6 POKER. 
 
 that he did not take to gambling for its own 
 sake ; that he drifted into it, as it were, 
 sometimes by mischance in business, sometimes 
 through the encroachments of half-unconscious 
 dissipation, and sometimes from sheer indolence 
 and love of easy and idle pleasure. A murrain 
 on't ! The capacity for real and steady work 
 diminished or gone ; the means of recuperation 
 squandered, confidence forfeited, and reputation 
 tarnished, what was left ? JSTothing but the card- 
 table, no longer a magic circle of diversion and 
 abandonment, but the grimy, back-breaking 
 actuality of a defeated life, indefinite, endless, 
 without any beginnings, or objective points, 
 or ambitions that are not vulgar, venal, and 
 corrupt, or victories that are not brutal and 
 base. 
 
 ^'^Yet of all the vices, none is so easy of 
 amendment, as none shows so many illustrations 
 of reform. In the great cities most men have 
 taken a turn at some form of gambling ; few who 
 have not either thrown it off or brought it under 
 regulation and control. Gaming is largely a 
 habit, and a habit of association. It does not, 
 like so many other vices, communicate directly 
 any poison to the blood, though too often lead- 
 ing to those that do. In its origin it is not with- 
 out a certain manhood and humor, and hence in 
 all ages and among all classes it has had an ex- 
 
POKER. 
 
 istence. But at the very best it is open to the 
 gravest objections. 
 
 ^^It is too absorbing, detaining players beyond 
 their time^ and often from the most honorable 
 motives. It is too confining, lacking the pure 
 air and light of day, and j)ermeated by the fetid 
 atmosphere of midnight and tobacco, where it 
 does not descend into the health-destroying fumes 
 of drink. It completely deadens the money- 
 sense, and, in fact, the sense of all values ; and, 
 where carried to the least excess, is a moral crime 
 in exacting something for nothing. I will not 
 add that it is provocative of a great talent for 
 domestic lying, and an incalculable amount of it, 
 because it may be doubted whether the loving 
 wife who listens with moist eyes to the sad story 
 of the sick friend is deceived as much and as 
 often as she pretends to be. Assuredly not in 
 Kentucky, where be sure the women of two or 
 three generations have not lived wholly in vain, 
 and where, in every case, it would be well for the 
 recusant husband to pay no heed to the counsel 
 of the Kentucky journalist, of whom tradition 
 relates that, on a certain occasion, he observed 
 to the friend with whom he was about to sepa- 
 rate at the street corner which divided their 
 respective homes : ^ I have always made it a 
 rule, Isaac, to go to my wife and tell her the 
 truth ; it is much the best way, believe me ; 
 
8 POKER. 
 
 and so^ as soon as I get in^ I mean to put a bold 
 face on it and frankly say that the press broke 
 down ! ^ 
 
 '^ Fictions like these^ however ingenious and 
 maintained, have no power to mislead such 
 ladies as the astute Bluegrass matron^ who, after 
 allowing her husband to disrobe in fancied se- 
 curity, and to sit rocking the cradle on the 
 edge of the bed until nearly frozen by the cun- 
 ning attempt at deception, at last exclaimed : 
 ' Oh, come on to bed ; the baby ain't in that 
 cradle ! ^ 
 
 ^MVhen old Jediah Suggs, the father of the 
 illustrious Simon, having discovered that young 
 hopeful playing cards, undertook to impress the 
 boy with the idea that gambling is a waste of 
 time and money, the embryo Captain of the 
 Tallapoosa Volunteers asked, with more per- 
 tinency than depth of thought : ' Well, whar 
 does the money go, daddy, that everybody loses ? ' 
 In spite of the inability of the elder Mr. Suggs 
 to answer this inquiry, he builded wiser than he 
 knew, and was in the main right in his original 
 proposition. '^ 
 
 A prominent theatrical manager tells this 
 story : 
 
 ' ' Henry WagstafE is breezy, and has a dashy 
 way that no one can i^esist admiring. I heard 
 of a game of poker he played where he was sadly 
 
POKEE. 
 
 caught on a big bluflE. He was at the table with 
 Mr. John Dougherty, and several other first- 
 class players. The mere fact that Wagstaff 
 was in the game was sufficient to indicate that 
 big stakes were now and then placed on the table. 
 It was jack-pot poker, and now and then the 
 pot became alarmingly large. But ^ Wag ' did 
 not grow dizzy, and he bet with cavalier sang- 
 froid. The fact is, the great editor's poker nerve 
 is the admiration of thousands of players. His 
 face does not change, no matter if he is betting 
 high on a bobtail flush. Some one opened the 
 jack-pot and WagstaflE and Dougherty came in, 
 each drawing three cards. When it came 
 ' Wag's ' time to bet he coolly put up $100. The 
 jack-pot contained several hundred besides, and 
 no one wanted to give up at once. But the 
 assured way in which the editor ]3ut up his bet 
 caused all to drop out except Dougherty. 
 
 ^'^He saw the bet and raised it another hun- 
 dred. Wagstaflf never hesitated but went an- 
 other hundred better. All the others at the 
 table began to feel sorry for Dougherty, for 
 they imagined that the editor had a big winning 
 hand and was drawing his opponent on. After 
 three one-hundred-dollar bets had been made, 
 Dougherty, to the astonishment of those present, 
 called Wagstaff. The latter put his hand on 
 the table and showed that he had been betting 
 
10 POKER. 
 
 on a pair of deuces. Dougherty raked in some- 
 thing like $1000 with a pair of sevens. Every 
 one present admired the editor's bluffing nerve, 
 but great praise was bestowed upon Dougherty 
 for his unbounded confidence in a pair of sevens. 
 No one can tell when ^ Wag ^ is bluffing or 
 betting on a big hand, and that is one reason 
 why he is such a great player.^' 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE GAME. 
 
 " As sure a card as ever won the sety 
 
 Titus Andronicus. Act F., Scene 1st. 
 
 ^ Whatever its origin, poker is now conceded to 
 be one of the most intellectual, as it is doubtless 
 the most fascinating, of card games. Attack 
 and defense are in it developed to an amazing 
 perfection, the opportunities of seizing strategic 
 advantage being Avonderful. There never was 
 seen such a combination of logic and luck, of 
 calculation and speculation. It has by some 
 been declared the offspring of the famous and 
 difficult English game of '^ Gleek,^^ which we 
 know to be three hundred years old, while 
 others describe it as a direct development from 
 the English game of '^^Brag.^^ The derivation 
 of the name from the old English ''pot and 
 vair '' seems fanciful, but the striking analogy 
 between the use of the poker terms ^^ seeing ^^ 
 and ^^ seeing you again,^^ or ^^ raising, ^^ and the 
 
POKER. 11 
 
 '' vying'' and ^^ re-vying/^ or seeing and re- seeing 
 referred to by Ben Jonson in '^^ Every Man in 
 His Humour '' is notable and suggestive. 
 
 It would seem by all odds^ therefore, to have 
 sprung, like so much of what is best in America, 
 from '^the right little, tight little island/'' Sir 
 Walter Ealeigh may have brought it over, and 
 Captain John Smith may, in defiance of the 
 legend, have won his life and Pocahontas^ hand 
 by bluffing her old red father ! 
 
 Baron Eothschild advised speculators: ^^Cut 
 short your losses ; let your profits run/^ Poker 
 is so admirable an exposition of human nature 
 that it is fruitful of maxims. Play liberally with 
 liberal players, and closely with close players. 
 
 Cable says : ^' A man who can play delight- 
 fully on a guitar and keep a knife in his boot 
 would make an excellent poker player ; '' and it is 
 just as well to remember that it is not at all nec- 
 essary to talk : in making bets the simple push- 
 ing of the chips registers the bet. The father 
 of American poker. General Bob Schenck, said : 
 ^'^The main elements of success are good luck, 
 good cards, plenty of cheek and good temper.'^ 
 Eichard Guerndale, in his ''Poker Book,"" adds, 
 and ''plenty of patience. ^^ To these it is not 
 misplaced here to add this : Push your luck 
 when winning ; stay out when losing, until a 
 little better hand than the average comes to you. 
 
12 
 
 POKER. 
 
 THE GAME. 
 
 " Tet Iham faced it with a card of ten.'''' 
 
 Taming of the Shrew. Act II., Scene Ist. 
 
 Poker is played with a pack of fifty-two cards 
 and by any number of persons from two to seven, 
 five being considered the most proper and agree- 
 able. Each plays against all the others, and 
 every card counts for its exact face value as in 
 whist. 
 
 The five main operations of the game of poker 
 are anteing, dealing, coming in or passing out, 
 discarding, and drawing and betting. 
 
 First Bettor 
 
 A Dealer. 
 
 The routine of the game may be readily gath- 
 ered by a neophyte from the accompanying dia- 
 gram, showing a table with positions for five 
 players. A, B, C, D, and E. 
 
 Any one of the party may first shuffle the 
 
POKER. 13 
 
 cards^ which he then proceeds to throw around^ 
 face up, one to each of the others and to him- 
 self. The first jack is the signal for deal, as a 
 matter of convenience. The person before whom 
 it falls gathers up all the cards. 
 
 Before dealing, this player, who for diagram 
 uses maj be designated A, must shuffle the cards 
 in the sight of every one at the table. Any 
 player may now demand to shuffle the pack, the 
 dealer. A, shuffling last, as a matter of course. 
 
 The cards must now be cut. It is by no means 
 essential that they be shuffled by any one but A. 
 But cut they ought invariably to be, and the 
 player upon whom this duty falls is always in E's 
 seat, at the dealers right. 
 
 The portion cut from the top must be placed 
 at the bottom of the pack, and the dealer must 
 hoM the entire pack in his hands. The portion 
 cut from the top must not be allowed to lie on 
 the table while the cards are being dealt. 
 
 Dealing one card at a time, face down and to 
 the left, A now proceeds to give to each player 
 at the table five cards. Should a faced card ap^ 
 pear in dealing, a new deal is required and the 
 pack must be re-shuffled and re-cut as at first. 
 The reason is evident : every player has a right 
 to his chance of drawing any card in the pack. 
 The sight of any card before the draw may alter 
 the draw he would otherwise make. 
 
14 POKER. 
 
 THE STAKES. 
 
 '' They ham tied me to a staked 
 
 Macbeth, Act F., Scene 7th. 
 
 The stakes are chips, or counters. As they 
 are used, presumably, only for that particular 
 game, or sitting, they should be redeemed by the 
 banker, at its close, for cash. Any player may 
 be banker, as agreed upon. An outsider, who 
 sits at the table but holds no hand, may by agree- 
 ment act in that capacity. Each player pur- 
 chases from the banker as many chips as he 
 desires. These purchases ought to be for cash. 
 If the banker chooses to accept the purchaser's 
 I. 0. U. in return for the chips, it is to be pre- 
 sumed the I. 0. U. will be redeemed for cash or 
 chips at the close of the sitting. To any other 
 player winning the chips of the player who gave 
 the I. 0. U. the banker must pay cash when 
 ^''cashing-in^^ time comes. The I. 0. U. must 
 under no circumstances be allowed to get into 
 circulation about the board. The amount of 
 money received by the banker in retui'n for chips 
 should be carefully put aside for the redemption 
 of the chips at the close of the game. 
 
 When it is agreed mutually to play for what 
 are known as ''table stakes, ^^ each player puts 
 on the table the amount he is prepared to lose. 
 
POKER. 15 
 
 The smallest such amount is then the limit of 
 the betting. Sometimes a knife or similar object 
 is put, instead of cash, into the pot, with the 
 remark, ^^That makes my stake as big as any- 
 body's/^ But such irregularities are only per- 
 missible among intimates and are no part of the 
 game. As to borrowing, it is the rule that if 
 you borrow to raise, you must borrow to call. 
 That is, if a player who is out of chips and cash 
 succeeds in borrowing from the banker (no other 
 borrowing should be permitted) enough to raise 
 a pot on, he should not be permitted to cry pov- 
 erty as an excuse for not calling when he in turn 
 has been raised. 
 
 THE ANTE. 
 
 ^^ If thou ham power to raise him.^^ 
 
 Henry IV- , Part I. Act III, Scene 1st. 
 
 The stake put up before play is begun by the 
 player next the dealer, on the left, is called 
 the ^^ blind. '^ All the players who come in 
 must put in the pot double the amount of the 
 ^^ blind '^ before cards can be drawn or bets made. 
 The blind cannot exceed one half the limit, 
 and should not be more than one tenth of the 
 limit, in order to make the game generally satis- 
 factory. 
 
 The player whose duty it is to put up the blind 
 
16 POKER. 
 
 is said to hold the age, and is, from his position, 
 entitled to the last bet. 
 
 The ante should be made small, as it is in 
 no way a measure of the betting. The fact that 
 a player has ^^ anted ^^ should not influence him 
 to come in ; he should not ^^make good^^ unless 
 he would under other circumstances have drawn 
 cards. The old style of poker required the 
 dealer to put up a fixed sum to be played for be- 
 fore he dealt. 
 
 While the ante may be put in the pot at any 
 time before the player holding the age looks 
 at his hand, it is proper for it to be made 
 before the dealing is begun. As it is in a way 
 the measure of betting, the ante as well as the 
 limit should be definitely and unanimously de- 
 cided before the deal begins. 
 
 It may not infrequently happen that a j)layer 
 who has had a run of luck desires to raise the 
 limit and increase the ante. This procedure is 
 much to be deprecated, as it is apt to be a sacri- 
 fice of the comfort of all for the caprice of one. 
 Of course in that method of playing known as 
 ^^ table stakes, ^^ wherein any one player, on de- 
 positing in full view on the table the sum total 
 of what he is willing to risk, has a right to '' see '^ 
 any hand for that sum, a raise of the ante or 
 limit beyond the amount so deposited is impos- 
 sible. And in the game of "^ freeze-out/^ a va- 
 
POKER. 17 
 
 riety of poker^ any player losing the amount so 
 deposited on the table is forbidden to come again 
 into the game^ the remaining players continu- 
 ing the game until all the chips are in one 
 player^s possession. 
 
 While the ante and the limit are, as before 
 said, generally arranged at a fixed value, an un- 
 limited game is sometimes played. This, how- 
 ever, is gambling pure and simple, and at once 
 places the player with a small capital at the 
 mercy of his richer rivals. As this little treatise 
 has been prepared for the use of those in search 
 of harmless amusement, using stakes solely as a 
 controlling influence to keep the play within 
 bounds and hold the interest of the players to 
 its spirit, I would suggest that the limit be 
 never more than the equivalent of ten times the 
 ante. 
 
 Having anted, B, the second player — that is, 
 the one on the dealer^s left — affords the third, 
 C, the opportunity of ^' raising before the draw,^"* 
 or of ^^ straddling ^^ or doubling the ante (double 
 the ante is of course four times the amount of 
 the blind). In case of """^ raising before the 
 draw,''^ any player on the left of the age is 
 allowed to raise the stake then being played 
 for — by putting that much additional into the 
 pot, to the limit, or to any less amount he 
 chooses. 
 
18 POKER. 
 
 As such a raise has an inevitable tendency to 
 keep other players from drawing cards^ at such 
 an additional expense^ it is not wise to resort to 
 it except in extreme cases^ where the player so 
 raising has a good hand, which he believes the 
 others are specially willing to '^ buck '^ against 
 for bluffing purposes. 
 
 As the third player, C, must in any event 
 bet first unless he passes, it would seem that he 
 ought to be very particular in straddling. Ordi- 
 narily he should not come in, that is, offer to 
 bet, with less than a pair of tens in his hand. 
 He must therefore consider, when he proposes 
 straddling, that the chances are that he has not 
 enough in his hand to Avarrant coming in. A 
 straddle under the circumstances — as he cannot 
 see his cards until after the straddle — implies 
 confidence that he has that much or more, or 
 amounts to a bluff pure and simple. Generally 
 speaking, good players do not straddle. For 
 straddling does not in reality alter the chances 
 of winning : it simply gives the straddler the 
 opportunity of observing what the other players 
 draw, with a view of forming the poker-player^s 
 legitimate inferences as to the value of their 
 hands to begin with. 
 
 If the player next the age, on the left, does 
 not straddle, no one else can, and he must use 
 
POKER. 19 
 
 his privilege before the completion of the deal. 
 No one^ of course, should look at his cards be-N 
 fore the deal is completed all around. 
 
 Should the third player, who sits next the age, 
 straddle the ^'^blind/^ as the ante is now called, 
 the players next him may in turn straddle his 
 ^^blind,^^ or raise, so long as the '^^ blind ^^ is not 
 in this way made more than half the limit of 
 the betting. 
 
 Some players, in case of a "^^ straddle, ^^ allow 
 the player making the ^^ straddle ^^ the privilege 
 of drawing cards last. But this is not right, 
 and should not be permitted. 
 
 When in the pot, the right of the age to bet 
 last and the right of the dealer to draw cards 
 last should never, under any circumstances, be 
 interfered with. 
 
 THE HANDS. 
 
 The very age and body of the timey 
 
 ^ Hamlet. Act III., Scene M. 
 
 Each hmid must ahvays contain five cards. 
 The hands at poker may be numbered as follows : 
 
 1. It contains no pair, straight, or sequence, 
 and is not worth drawing to for any reason; 
 sometimes called a ^^ kilter. ^^ 
 
20 POKER. 
 
 2. It contains an ace and may be worth draw- 
 ing to for that reason. 
 
 3. It contains a '^'^ bobtail^' flush or straight, 
 i. e., four cards of the same suit or a four se- 
 quence of different suits. 
 
 -> 4. It contains one pair. 
 
 5. It contains two pairs. 
 
 6. It contains three of a kind. 
 
 7. It contains a straight. 
 
 8. It contains a flush. 
 
 9. It contains a full. 
 
 10. It contains fours. 
 
 11. It contains a straight flush. 
 
 PLAYING A HAND PAT. 
 
 ''''Now might I do it, pat.^^ 
 
 Hamlet. Act III.^ Scene 3d, 
 
 To play a hand pat the limit should be bet 
 both before and after the draw, and the game 
 will seldom be found to be worth the candle. 
 The only hand to stand pat on, other than a 
 genuine one, is a hand without a pair and noth- 
 ing to draw to. 
 
 In the Southern States, I have heard, many 
 players consider it almost a point of honor to 
 stand pat on a hand called a ^^ kilter ^^ — that is, a 
 hand with a nine for the highest and a two for 
 the lowest card, and no chance of making a 
 
POKER. 21 
 
 sequence. It is impossible to make anything of 
 such a hand by drawing, and the only thing to be 
 done is to discard the whole or play pat. This 
 hand is No. 1 in the subdivision I have at- 
 tempted to make to simplify matters. 
 
 We will now suppose A, B, C, D, and E have 
 discarded and drawn, and so completed their 
 hands. Before proceeding to the serious business 
 of betting or bluffing, let us glance at hands in 
 general, so as to form an idea of what A, B, 
 C, D, and E may be expected to have. 
 
 Sequences, flushes, and fulls are the complete, 
 we might say perfect, hands. All the others 
 could be better. 
 
 In the enumeration of eleven poker hands 
 which I venture to make, I make no mention of 
 ^^ skips, ^^ ^'^ round the corners,"^ ^^ tigers, ^^ and 
 ^^blazes.^^ They have no place m the regular 
 game, and should ie taiooed. 
 
 To the novice I would say by way of explana- 
 tion that a '' blaze, ^^ when played, consists of five 
 face or picture cards and beats two pairs. A 
 ^^skip^^ is a species of straight, in which the 
 cards do not run consecutively, but with the in- 
 terval of one between each, thus : Two, four, 
 six, eight, and ten, or five, seven, nine, jack, 
 and king. This hand, when played, beats two 
 pairs. 
 
 A ^^ round-the- corner ^^ straight is king, ace, 
 
22 POKER. 
 
 two^ three, and four, or jack, queen, king, ace, 
 and two. When played, the hand ranks as a 
 straight, but any straight will beat it. 
 
 The " tiger '' consists of the lowest possible com- 
 bination of five cards : two, three, four, five, and 
 seven. Its place is between a straight and a 
 flush. 
 
 The value of any hand is only relative, since 
 its apparent value is destroyed by the delightful 
 element of uncertainty as to the actual value of 
 any other player^s hand. It has been said, how- 
 ever, that if you go in on a pair of face cards 
 only, in the long run you will come out better 
 than those players who go in on smaller pairs. 
 This would be too cautious a game, however, to 
 be popular at a social table. 
 
 HAND NO. I. 
 
 This, the lowest of all hands, contains in the 
 example given a ten-spot of clubs, nine-spot of 
 hearts^ four-spot of spades, five-spot of diamonds, 
 
POKER. 23 
 
 and six-spot of clubs. Iso player should draw 
 to it, and it is useless except to discard in toto 
 for five new cards^ or to stand pat on for a bluff. 
 
 HAND NO. 2. 
 
 This hand contains no pairs^ no straight se- 
 quence or flush. In the example given it con- 
 tains an ace and a face card. It was about a hand 
 like this that the story of Henry Clay^s famous 
 game with Daniel Webster is told. 
 
 It was Webster's deal. Clay took one card 
 and Webster stood pat. They went on betting 
 until they had each $2000 on the boards when 
 Clay called. Webster laughed^ shrugged his 
 shoulders, and threw his hand on the pot, saying, 
 '^ Tve only a pair of deuces. ^^ ^' Then the pot is 
 yours/^ Clay said, also laughing, ^^ I have only 
 ace high.''' Each felt sure that the other was 
 bluffing, and both were right. But it was con- 
 trary to the probabilities, even when only two 
 were playing, as well as to good play in general. 
 
24 POKER. 
 
 for Clay to call on ace high, however proper it 
 may have seemed to him to raise on that hand. 
 
 It is often proper to discard four cards tr-oia 
 this hand and draw to the ace. The draw to 
 the ace and king is folly. 
 
 HAND NO. 3. 
 
 The ^'^ bobtail/^ or^ as I have called it^ Hand 
 JSTo. 3, contains, as here illustrated^, a "^^ bobtail'^ 
 or ^^ four flush '' of hearts. The hand is the 
 samC;, of course, in any suit. It is nearly, if not 
 quite, always advisable to draw one card to this 
 hand. When holding the age a good player 
 always draws one to a bobtail. The value of 
 bobtail straights and flushes increases directly 
 with the number of players at the table. 
 
 HAND NO. 4. 
 
 The ^^ one-pair ^^ hand, which I have called 
 Hand No. 4, is shown here with a pair of tens. 
 
POKER. 25 
 
 those of clubs and hearts, the four of spades, 
 five of hearts, and six of hearts. 
 
 A pair, of course, consists of two cards of the 
 same denomination, and the hand must contain 
 three other cards. If two players each hold a 
 pair, the highest pair wins. If the two pairs are 
 similar, the highest remaining card wins. The 
 usual discard is, naturally, three cards. 
 
 HAND NO. 5. 
 
 This hand contains two pairs and one odd card. 
 The value of the hand is determined by the high- 
 
26 POKER. 
 
 est iDair. Thus, a pair of kings and a pair of 
 fives beat a pair of queens and a pair of tens. 
 In case the two hands are similar^ the one con- 
 taining the highest odd card wins. The nsual 
 discard is one card. (See "^^ Draws. ''^) 
 
 In the example given there are a pair of jacks, 
 diamonds and spades^ and a pair of threes, of 
 clubs and hearts ; the odd card being the nine 
 of hearts. 
 
 HAND NO. 6. 
 
 Hand No. 6, called '^'^ threes ^^ as a rule, con- 
 sists of three cards of the same denomination 
 and of course of different suits, accompanied by 
 two odd cards of different denominations and of 
 the same or different suits. 
 
 In the illustration there are three tens, of 
 spades, clubs, and hearts, a king of diamonds, 
 and an ace of spades. 
 
 The ordinary discard is two cards. But of 
 this more later under the head of ^^ Draws. ''^ 
 
POKER. 
 
 27 
 
 HAND NO. 7. 
 
 A straight, which we call Hand No. 7, is a 
 sequence of five cards, not all of the same suit. 
 Thus, a five, six, seven, eight, and nine of any 
 color or suit make a straight. An ace in this 
 hand may be either the lowest or the highest card, 
 
 but cannot occupy an intermediate position ; as, 
 for example, queen, king, ace, two, and three do 
 not constitute a straight proper, but are by some 
 considered to be a hand by themselves, called a 
 ^^ round the corner, ^^ which, however, is to be 
 deprecated. 
 
 The value of a straight is to be determined by 
 the top card. The highest straight wins. A 
 straight will beat triplets. Straights are not 
 always played, but should be allowed ; though 
 this of course should be settled before the begin- 
 ning of the game, as, indeed, should all points 
 likely to be mooted. 
 
58 POKER. 
 
 The illustration shows a straight of spades and 
 hearts. The hand would still be the same what- 
 ever suit the cards were. 
 
 HAND NO. 8. 
 
 The flush contains five cards of the same suit, 
 not in sequence, as five hearts, or five clubs, of 
 any denomination. The flush containing the 
 highest card wins. If the highest cards tie, 
 then the next highest card in either hand decides 
 which wins. A flush will beat a straight, and 
 two equal flushes divide a pot, of course. In 
 counting for supremacy the ace is high in a flush 
 or straight. 
 
 The flush shown here consists of five clubs. 
 
 The flush of course, as does the straight, re- 
 quires its holder to stand pat. While this great- 
 ly impairs the efficiency of the hand, it proves 
 tremendously valuable at times. The straight 
 flush, consisting of five cards, consecutive and 
 
POKER. 29 
 
 of the same suit^ is the highest hand at poker, 
 if straights are allowed in the game. If not, it 
 counts, like any other flushy simply from the 
 highest card. 
 
 HAND NO. 9. 
 
 The full hand consists of three cards of the 
 same denomination and a pair^ as three kings 
 and a pair of eights. If more than one player 
 holds a full, the highest threes win, irrespective 
 of the other pair. A full will beat a flush. 
 
 The full shown here consists of three jacks 
 of the club, heart, and diamond suits, and a pair 
 of sevens of the diamond and heart suits. 
 
 HAND NO. 10. 
 
 Fours, here called Hand No. 10, consists of 
 four cards of the same denomination, accom- 
 panied by one other card. The highest four 
 
30 
 
 POKER. 
 
 ^vins. When straights are not played, fours beat 
 'a straight flush^ being of course higher in value 
 \than any flush. 
 
 HAND NO. II. 
 
 The straight flush is the highest hand that can 
 be held. It is a straight in which all the cards 
 are of the sajiie suit. The value is determined 
 in the same way as a straight, the highest card 
 winning. When straights are not played the 
 straight flush does not rank higher than a com- 
 mon flush. 
 
POKER. 31 
 
 It is possible for two straight flushes to be 
 equals and in that case the pot is divided. 
 
 The straight flush here shown is of diamonds, 
 beginning with the king. 
 
 THE DRAW. 
 
 '■^ I dare draw as soon as another many 
 
 Borneo and Juliet. Act II., Scene kth. 
 
 There is a slangy saying that the game of 
 poker is '"'all in the draw.^"* While this is an 
 exaggeration, it is not so very far from the truth. 
 In the first place, it should be borne in mind 
 that it is a duty each player owes to the game, 
 his neighbors, and himself, to discard and draw 
 quickly and decorously. It should be concluded 
 as soon as possible after every one has come in 
 or passed out. The practice of poring over the_ 
 cards should be deprecated ; it often prevents 
 some other player from acting on an impulse 
 suggested by the first view of his own hand, and 
 by delaying further procedure annoys the other 
 players in general. 
 
 As to the method of discarding, one should 
 throw his discards to the center of the table, as 
 nearly as possible in front of the next dealer. 
 This discarding should be done quickly and 
 unhesitatingly. The dealer must announce his 
 draw in an audible voice ; the other players of 
 
32 POKER. 
 
 course must ask for their cards so as to be heard 
 by the dealer and other players as well. After 
 cards have been drawn and before a bet is made, 
 should a player ask the dealer how many cards 
 any other player drew, the latest decision is that 
 the dealer is bound to answer. 
 
 Two cards should not be drawn to a pair un- 
 less an ace or king can be retained with them, 
 except for the purjDOse of a ^^ bluff /^ If most 
 of the other players are ^'^in/^ the chances of 
 drawing an ace or a king are not quite so good 
 as those of drawing a small card, because the 
 other players are more likely to be staying in on 
 high than on low cards. The probabilities of 
 such being the case are of course quite impossi- 
 ble to determine, but they are very slight and 
 are more than compensated by the chances of 
 increasing the comparative value of the hand by 
 making aces or kings '' up^^ instead of two small 
 pairs. Thus, while it has been well said that 
 the actual mathematical expectations of improv- 
 ing such a hand are greater by drawing three 
 cards, yet it cannot be denied that the practi- 
 cal value of the hand is much enhanced by a 
 successful two-card draw. The odd card should 
 only be retained with a small pair — that is, on 
 the merits of which the pot cannot, presumably, 
 be won — say a pair of nines or under. 
 
POKEE. 33 
 
 THE DRAW TO TWO PAIRS. 
 
 ". . . . and here justified 
 By m, a pair of kings.'" 
 
 Winter's Tale. Act F., Scene 3d. 
 
 The only way of improying two pairs being 
 to make a full hand, the chances are eleven and 
 three fourths to one against its being made. 
 When two small pairs are held and there are 
 indications of fairly good hands being out, the 
 smaller pair is often discarded, the chances of 
 drawing a third to a pair being greater than of 
 making a full hand out of two pairs. Again, if 
 two pairs be held with aces or kings up, and a 
 raise following a two-card draw by one or the 
 other players points to threes being held by him, 
 the smaller pair might be discarded in the hope 
 of making high threes. No rules can be laid 
 down for either of the above cases, as a question 
 of judgment is involved. Many playe rs_of ex- 
 perience recommend standing pat occasionally 
 on two small pairs. This is not specially to be 
 advised, since the only hand liable to be driven 
 out is a hand which is jt(st a little better. 
 Almost any player with ^^ aces up^^ or three of 
 a kind will call a pat hand, particularly if the 
 pot be a large one ; and to stand pat on two 
 pairs against an inferior hand is to waste your 
 resources. 
 
34 POKER, 
 
 THE DRAW TO THREES. 
 
 •' Hold your hands^ 
 •Both you of my inclining, and the restV 
 
 Othello. Act /., Scene 2d. 
 
 When a player finds threes in his hand on the 
 first deal, he at once recognizes the fact that it 
 may be improved to either a full hand or fours. 
 There is no other increase of value possible. 
 Once in every twenty-three and a half times feur 
 of a kind may be made by drawing two cards to 
 threes. Just twice as often, or about once in 
 twelve times, a full hand may be made. It is 
 possible, therefore, to improve this hand by 
 drawing just once in every eight times. 
 
 A favorite play is to retain an odd card, dis- 
 carding and drawing one card, and thus accom- 
 plishing the valuable result of deceiving one^s 
 rivals as to the strength of the hand. The 
 probabilities /of improving the hand are of course 
 much less, four of. a kind being possibly made 
 in this way only once in forty-seven times. The 
 one-card draw will result in a full hand about 
 once in sixteen times. The one-card draw 
 creates the impression that the hand is either 
 a straight, a flush, or two pairs. It seems to be 
 the opinion of good judges that as three of a 
 kind is nineteen times out of twenty a good 
 enough hand to win the pot, it offers the pos- 
 
POKEE. 35 
 
 sessor a very wide range for the exercise of his 
 own judgment in the draw. It matters not how 
 the draw is made^, the hand is bound to remain 
 good, and may be improved. For this reason 
 the policy of masking the hand is often advisa- 
 ble ; for the one-card draw especially is calculated 
 to create an appearance of bluffing, indicating a 
 draw to a bobtail straight or flush. 
 
 Some excellent authorities on poker say that 
 with three of a kind it is almost always best to 
 hold up a card and draw one. 
 
 THE DRAW TO A FULL. 
 
 ''"'TIS a good hand:' 
 
 Othello. Act Ill.y Scene kth. 
 
 While it seems a little paradoxical to talk 
 about drawing cards to a hand which is dealt 
 you in its complete form, such as a full, yet it 
 often occurs that for reasons of the moment it is 
 advisable to discard the pair and draw two cards, 
 or more probably to throw away one of the asso- 
 ciate pair and draw one. Where there are only 
 a few playing and a full hand with aces or kings 
 pat is dealt, it is better to mask the strength of 
 the hand by throwing away the small pair, or 
 one of them at least, retaining the three aces or 
 three kings. But this, of course, is largely a 
 matter for individual taste and the emergency cf 
 the moment. 
 
3G POKER. 
 
 DRAWING TO A BOBTAIL 
 
 " For I am nothing.'"' 
 
 •Othello. Act II., Scene Ist. 
 
 The larger the number of players in a game, 
 the better play it is to draw one card to a bob- 
 tail flush or straight. As far as the element of 
 chance goes, it must be remembered that the 
 four cards are of absolutely no value without the 
 odd fifth which is to be drawn, excej)t so far 
 as bluffing is concerned. There is no prob- 
 ability of a bobtail winning on its merits, con- 
 sequently the only chance of winning is of 
 improving the hand. It is hardly worth while 
 to take the risk unless the pot is one of consid- 
 erable size. 
 
 Drawing to a straight with both ends open is 
 very good play, as the odds are only about six to 
 one against its being made. But drawing to an 
 intermediate straight is taking a chance of one 
 in twelve. A flush, according to the calculus of 
 probabilities, should on a one-card draw be 
 made nine times out of forty-seven. 
 
 THE BETTING AND BLUFFING. 
 
 '''- 1 rats' d him.'''' 
 
 Conolanus. Act F., Scene 5th, 
 
 After the discarding comes the betting. Pri- 
 marily the bettor, or the player on whom the duty 
 
POKEK. 37 
 
 of betting or ^'^ passing out '' first devolves^ is the 
 second to the dealer's left^ 0. He bets first or 
 goes out, and each player, after him, has the 
 privilege of either ^^ seeing '^ what C has bet, 
 raising it, or passing out. When in this way 
 the turn of the age is reached, he may raise, up 
 to the limit, or simply '^^see^' the highest bet 
 already made, or, if C's bet is the highest, he has 
 the advantage of position and may '^^call,^^ his 
 ^'call^' requiring a ^^ show-down'" of hands. 
 
 That form of betting known as bluffing, which 
 by some is erroneously supposed to so character- 
 ize the game of draw poker as to give it, actu- 
 ally, the name of ^^ bluff '' in some localities, is 
 a necessary part of the game as best played. 
 But it cannot be denied that many poker play- 
 ers do get through an evening without once re- 
 sorting to it. The fact that they pretend to 
 bluff, or bluff at bluffing, has, however, the de- 
 sired result, in producing an erroneous impres- 
 sion on the minds of their companions at table 
 — producing such impressions being indeed a sine 
 qua non to success ; for the player known never 
 to bluff is never ^'^ called,'^ except on some hand 
 shown by experience to be probably superior to 
 his. Successful bluffs are almost impossible in 
 jack-pots, which see later. 
 
 When the last bet or bluff has been made, and 
 there is a ^^call,'' the hands of all those who are 
 
38 POKER. 
 
 still ill the game should be shown face upward 
 on the table. The highest hand takes the pot. 
 Where two hands are exactly of equal value, the 
 pot is divided between them. 
 
 JACK-POTS. 
 
 '•' Silken^ sly^ insinuating Jacks y 
 
 Richard III. Act I., Scene Sd. 
 
 The jack-pot is a delightful episode in a game 
 of poker ; but it must be permitted to arise 
 naturally, and to dawn upon the vision of the 
 wearied traveler like an oasis in the desert, 
 rather than be forced upon him. ^^ Passing 
 the buck/^ which is simply the phrase applied to 
 the circulation of a buckhorn knife, or any other 
 such object, around the table, should never be 
 employed as a means of artificially producing 
 jack-pots, since the jack-pot is a direct and 
 serious innovation on the regular routine of the 
 game, making a difference not only in the deal- 
 ing, but in the drawing and betting also. 
 
 A jack-pot is a pot played for when every 
 player around the table passes. 
 
 This requires the supposition that when all 
 have passed around to the ante-man, he also 
 passes. Thereupon, it being his deal, he takes 
 the cards and deals as usual ; but before so doing, 
 every player around the board, as one of the 
 solemn ceremonials attending upon jack-pots, is 
 
POKER. 39 
 
 required to contribute to the pot before the deal 
 the amount of the ante, or some other amount 
 arbitrarily fixed upon by the ante-man, who 
 exercises very considerable authority in the 
 matter. 
 
 The second distinguishing feature of the jack- 
 pot is the fact that, after the ante-man has so 
 dealt, and all around the table have so contrib- 
 uted, the first bettor is called upon not only to 
 bet but to perform that mysterious ceremony 
 known as '^ opening the pot,^^ w^hich he cannot 
 do unless he finds in his hand the equivalent of 
 a pair of jacks or better. If he finds that he has 
 not in his hand a pair of jacks or better, he 
 passes, and the next player in turn examines his 
 hand for the openers. If he does not find them, 
 the privilege of opening the pot passes around 
 the board, and if nobody can do so, the next 
 player in turn deals again after every player 
 present has ^"^ fattened ^^ the pot with either one 
 chip or an amount agreed upon. The process of 
 opening the pot must now be gone through with 
 again, and if the second time no player in his 
 turn discovers a pair of jacks or better, the pot 
 must be again ^^ fattened, ^^ and a new deal made 
 until the mystical openers are finally discovered. 
 
 When this discovery has been made, and the 
 player finding in his hand a pair of jacks or 
 more says, ^^I will open the pot,^^ he is at once 
 
40 POKER. 
 
 called upon to bet, no matter what his position 
 at the table be, and all those who do not see his 
 bet fall out, and lose their share of the pot. 
 
 It is considered the best play to open a jack- 
 pot for the limit if it is of any special value. If, 
 however, the opener has an extraordinary good 
 hand and wishes to induce everybody else to 
 come in, he may make the open as light as he 
 chooses. If, however, he finds in his hand 
 openers only, it is generally considered best for 
 him to open for the limit. 
 
 The drawing and betting in jack-pots, outside 
 of the opening bet, are exactly similar to those 
 of the regular game of poker. 
 
 Any player other than the opener who desires 
 to come in may do so on putting up the amount 
 for which the pot was opened, regardless of the 
 value of his hand. 
 
 Of course as the opener must have a pair of 
 jacks or more, he must prove to the other 
 players at the end of the pot that he did hold 
 such a hand on the go-in. For that reason he 
 must invariably show his hand at the termina- 
 tion of the pot, openers and all, face up on the 
 table. It is considered an excellent rule, by the 
 way, to open a jack-pot whenever you can.. 
 
 The question of discards naturally arises when 
 the opener has such a hand as this : A pair of 
 jacks and four hearts. Naturally it occurs to 
 
POKER. 41 
 
 him^ with a big pot and a good many playing, 
 that were he to discard the other jack and keep 
 the four hearts, with the jack at the head, he 
 may stand a good chance of drawing the fifth 
 heart and getting a flush. In such cases it is 
 considered allowable for him to do so, if he care- 
 fully puts the discarded jack on one side, where 
 it remains in full view, and announces his in- 
 tention of discarding one of his openers. 
 
 PENALTIES IN POKER. 
 
 ** Your lordship is the most patient man in loss.'^ 
 
 Cymheline. Act II., Scene Sd. 
 
 In a gentleman^'s game, by gentlemen and for 
 gentlemen, there ought to be as little possible 
 question on such matters as penalties. However, 
 there are some sins against the code of poker 
 so grievous that their commission should be dis- 
 couraged in every possible way ; and against 
 them penalties have been at times made. This, 
 however, should be largely a matter for mutual 
 agreement at the time. 
 
 The penalty for opening a jack-pot without 
 openers is sometimes enforced by requiring the 
 offender to make an extra contribution to the 
 pot. The penalty for taking up a six-card or 
 other foul hand from the table is that the of- 
 fender must not play in that hand. If a foul 
 
42 POKER. 
 
 hand is bet^ the offender loses the pot. If a 
 player miscalls his hands^ innocently, and on the 
 show-down has enough to win the pot, it remains 
 his. Miscalling a hand, however, knowingly, 
 with the expectation that the error may escape 
 detection in the show-down, is one of the grossest 
 violations of fair play. Any hand which is not 
 properly dealt is a foul hand. 
 
 STRAIGHT POKER. 
 
 Straight Poker was played before Draw Poker, 
 and is the original game. It carries out the 
 true spirit of the game, and is almost pure bluff. 
 The essential difference between Straight Poker 
 and Draw Poker is that in the former you play 
 with the original cards, there being no draw. 
 Each player puts up a certain amount before the 
 deal, and there is no ante. 
 
 STUD POKER. 
 
 Stud Poker is played in negro clubs and in the 
 West. The deal is of no value ; one position 
 is as good' as another. Each player puts up 
 a certain amount, to form a pot. The dealer 
 throws down two cards to each player, the first 
 face down, the second face up. The first is 
 called the '' down '' card, and is seen by the recip- 
 ient only. The player with the highest "^^ turn- 
 up '' card can make a bet or pass and come in 
 
POKEK. 43 
 
 again. If he passes^ the player next him can bet^ 
 or pass ; and so on, around the table. When a 
 bet is made and the other players have either seen 
 or passed out, or when all have passed, another 
 card is dealt around, face up, the player with the 
 highest shown hand having to bet, or pass, first, 
 and so on, until each player has received five 
 cards, four face up and one face down. The bet- 
 ting and raising are as in regular poker, the high- 
 est hand winning at the call. If the game be 
 played with a draw, then cards are drawn which 
 are not exposed. 
 
 WHISKY POKER. 
 
 In Whisky Poker each player puts up a cer- 
 tain amount ; this forms a pot, which is not 
 increased, there being no betting. Five cards 
 are dealt around, with an extra hand in the mid- 
 dle of the table ; this hand is called '^ the widow.^^ 
 The player next the dealer has the choice of 
 retaining his hand or taking ''''the widow. ^^ If 
 he retains his hand he passes, and the player 
 to the left has the privilege, and so on all 
 around. If ''''the widow ^^ be taken, the player 
 taking it places his original hand in the mid- 
 dle of the table, face up, and the other players 
 in turn take one or more cards from the ex- 
 posed hand, replacing them with cards from 
 their own. This goes on until one player de- 
 
44 POKER. 
 
 clares himself satisfied ; those after him may 
 continue to exchange cards until it comes round 
 to him again, when the hands are considered 
 called and the highest wins. Any player may 
 consider himself satisfied at any time, and so 
 indicates by rapping on the table with his 
 knuckles. 
 
 The game originated in the mining-camps, no 
 money or chips being used, but the lowest hand 
 being obliged to pay for drinks. 
 
POKER SHARPS 
 
 MARKED CARDS, "BUGS," AND OTHER DEVICES 
 FOR THE UNWARY. 
 
 '•''But whiles he thought to steal the single ten. 
 The king was slily fingered from the deck, ! " 
 
 Henry YL, Fart III. Act F., Scene 1st 
 
 As it is just as well to be on one^s guard 
 against the devices of swindlers and the mechan- 
 ical contrivances of fraudulent poker players^ I 
 will give the reader an idea of the ''^ bug/' marked 
 cards^ and other traps for the unwary. Of the 
 devices regularly manufactured and sold for the 
 aid and comfort of professional poker players^ a 
 conspicuous one is the ^"^ hold-out/^ which ena- 
 bles the gambler to hold out from three to fifty- 
 two cards^ so that he may supply his hand from 
 this extra source without danger of detection. 
 There are vest '^'^ hold-outs/^ coat ^'^ hold-outs/^ 
 the ^"^bug^^ or table "^Hiold-out/'^ and the ring 
 ^^hold-out.^' 
 
 . The ^"^ bug/^ an illustration of which is printed 
 herewith^ is about as simple a contrivance as can 
 
46 
 
 POKER. 
 
 well be imagined. It is made in various styles, 
 but consists usually of a small wooden nob about 
 the size of a chestnut. Into this is inserted a 
 piece of watch-spring four or five inches long, 
 with a decided upward tendency. When the 
 head of a small steel nail with a very sharp 
 point has also been inserted in the nob, the " bug '^ 
 is ready for business. In the illustration a man^s 
 
 The '^Bug." 
 
 hand is just about placing it underneath the 
 table. The sharp point is stuck into the table a 
 few inches from the edge, and when firmly fixed 
 the watch-spring with the upward tendency 
 makes connection with the flat under surface, 
 and a convenient place for placing extra cards 
 is thus secured. In a game of poker a few extra 
 kings, queens, and aces are, of course, always 
 desirable. There are also various kinds of re- 
 flectors or mirrors to be used so that the dealer 
 
POKER. 47 
 
 may learn what cards he is dealing to an oppo- 
 nent. ^"^ A table reflector to fit any table^, very 
 fine^ cannot be detected^ a valuable article for a 
 dealer at stud poker/^ is highly prized. So is a 
 reflector in a pipe, all complete, with pipe ready 
 for use. There is also a reflector to fasten on 
 a pile of greenbacks, and ^^ ^ reflector to set in 
 five faro or poker chips, set in chips ready for 
 use.^^ 
 
 Nearly everybody has heard of playing cards 
 with marked backs, but comparatively few have 
 heard of quite as common a device among gam- 
 blers known as stripping. Cards that are 
 stripped are simply cut a very little narrower 
 and shorter than the other cards in the pack, 
 and in consequence, the cards which are not 
 stripped are very easily detected by the delicate 
 hand of the experienced gambler, and are put 
 readily in desired positions. 
 
 MARKED CARDS. 
 
 ** Master Sure- Card, as I think.'''* 
 
 Henry IV. Part 11, Act III., Scene U, 
 
 The accompanying pictures of sections of 
 cards with marked backs show clearly one of the 
 many ingenious devices. There are two flowers 
 on the lower left-hand corner, which are varied 
 to designate the suit and the size of the card. 
 The lower flower has three leaves. When the 
 
48 
 
 POKER. 
 
 upper leaf is the largest of the three^ the card is 
 a club ; when the center leaf is the largest, it is 
 
 ACE OF CLUBS 
 
 KING or CLUBS 
 
 a diamond ; when the lower leaf is the largest, 
 it is a heart ; and when all the leaves are of the 
 same size, the card is a spade. 
 
 NINE or CLUBS 
 
 EIGHT or CLUBS 
 
 The size of the cards is determined by the 
 upper flower, first by its" design and secondly by 
 the direction in which it points. If it is of a 
 
POKEE. 
 
 49 
 
 smooth clover design, it designates one of five 
 cards, beginning with the ace and ending with 
 
 ACE OF CLUBS ACE OF SPADES 
 
 the ten-spot, accordingly as it points upwards 
 at an acute angle, at right angles, at an acute 
 angle downward, or straight down. If it is rather 
 
 ace: or hearts 
 
 ACE OF DIAMONDS 
 
 quaint and angular in design, it designates one 
 of five cards, beginning with the nine and end- 
 ing with the five. These two flowers are illus- 
 
50 POKER. 
 
 trated in the accompanying cuts^ showing the ace 
 and king, the nine-spot and eight. 
 
 The four-spot^ the tray^ and the deuce are 
 designated by a two-leafed flower shown in 
 three different directions. The flowers which 
 are emphasized in the cnts and marked in black 
 are^ of course^ on the back of the card itself 
 lost in the general design, and can only be dis- 
 tinguished by a practiced eye. 
 
POKER-DICE. 
 
 *' / will stand the hazard of the die.'''' 
 
 Richard III. Act F., Scene Uh, 
 
 Five dice must be used in this interesting va- 
 riety of the game, and the stakes determined on 
 must be put into the pot by each player^ one^ 
 two, three, or as many chips as may be mutually 
 
 agreed upon. The whole amount or pot goes to 
 the best thrower. Any number of players may 
 engage in poker-dice, each one to have three 
 
52 POKER. 
 
 throws. When the game was first invented, 
 two throws only were allowed the player, but the 
 three-throw game is much the more interesting. 
 
 The entire five dice are cast at the first throw. 
 Suppose the first thrower, there being no advan- 
 tage in priority, throws this hand : 
 
 Two aces, a deuce, a tray, and a four. 
 
 Now his game would be, of course, to leave 
 his aces on the table and throw the other three 
 dice, since it would be absurd for him to split 
 his aces. Should he at the second throw turn 
 out another ace, he has now three of a kind, and 
 possibly at this throw he might turn out another 
 pair with his ace, making an ace full ; or he 
 might throw two more aces, making four of a 
 kind ; or three aces more, making five aces, the 
 highest hand in poker-dice. It is possible with 
 five dice to make a straight, say one, two, three, 
 four, and five, thus beating three of a kind. In 
 short, the values run exactly as in the card game 
 of poker. When two players with one pair each 
 are tied, the next highest pip counts in favor of 
 the pair with which it is associated. For ex- 
 ample, if a player has a pair of aces and a three, 
 four, and five, and the other player has a pair of 
 aces and a two, three, and a six, the six makes 
 his hand the best and he takes the pot. 
 
 On the occasion of an even tie, a single throw 
 between the two decides the winner. 
 
POKER. 53 
 
 A player is not bound to throw three times. 
 It is his privilege to stand on any single throw^ 
 whether it be the first, second, or third. A new 
 and very pretty kind of poker-dice has recently 
 been manufactured, showing the nine, ten, jack, 
 king, queen, and ace, beautifully enameled. 
 They may be procured at any of the leading 
 houses where sporting goods are sold. 
 
- SCHENCK ON POKER. 
 
 While General Eobert E. Schenck was the 
 American Minister to England, lie won the very 
 unjust title of " Poker Schenck/^ I am told that 
 at one of the Queen^s receptions he fell into con- 
 versation with a noted English duchess about 
 cards. During this talk he described to her the 
 beauties of poker in such a way that she became 
 intensely interested, and begged him to write 
 her out a set of rules and directions for playing 
 the great American game. This Mr. Schenck 
 very kindly did. The duchess learned to play 
 poker, and as it wove its fascinating toils about 
 her she wanted her friends to learn also. For 
 convenience she had Mr. Schenck^s letter printed 
 in a neat pamphlet and distributed among her 
 friends of the court circles. A malicious scrib- 
 bler heard of the fact, and telegraphed to the 
 American newspapers that our foreign minister 
 had published a book on poker playing. As 
 many persons feel a natural interest in General 
 Schenck^s rules, I append them herewith. 
 
POKER. 55 
 
 RULES FOR PLAYING POKER. 
 BY THE HON. ROBERT C. SCHENCK, 
 
 Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipoten- 
 tiary of tlie United States of America near 
 Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain 
 and Ireland, 
 
 THE DEAL. 
 
 The deal is of no special value, and anybody 
 may begin. 
 
 The dealer, beginning with the person at his 
 left, throws aronnd five cards to each player, 
 giving one card at a time. 
 
 The dealer shuffles and makes up the pack 
 himself ; or, it may be done by the player at his 
 left, and the player at his right must cut. 
 
 THE ANTE. 
 
 To begin the pool, the player next tO the dealer 
 on his left must put up money, which is called 
 an ^^ante^^ ; and then in succession each play- 
 er, passing around to the left, must, after look- 
 ing at his hand, determine if he goes in or not ; 
 and each person deciding to play for the pool 
 must put in twice the amount of the ante. 
 Those who decline to play throw up their cards 
 face downward on the table, and, per conse- 
 quence, in front of the next dealer. 
 
56 POKER. 
 
 When all who wish to play have gone in^ the 
 person putting up the ante can either give 
 up all interest in the pool^ thus forfeiting the 
 ante that has been put up^ or else can play 
 like the others who have gone in, by ^^ making 
 good '^ ; that is^ putting up in addition to the 
 ante as much more as will make him equal in 
 stake to the rest. 
 
 If a number of players have gone in^ it is best 
 generally for the ante-man to make good and go 
 in, even with a poor hand, because half his stake 
 is already up, and he can therefore stay in for 
 half as much as the others have had to put up, 
 which is a percentage in favor of his taking the 
 risk. This, of course, does not apply if any one 
 has ^'^ raised ^^; that is, more than doubled the 
 ante before it comes around to the starting- 
 point. 
 
 RAISING. 
 
 . Any one, at the time of going in, must put up 
 as much as double the ante, and may put up as 
 much more as he pleases, by way of ^*^ raising ^^ 
 the ante ; in which case every other player must 
 put up as much as will make his stake equal to 
 such increase, or else abandon what he has 
 already put in. 
 
 Each player, as he makes good and equals the 
 others who are in before him, can thus increase 
 the ante if he chooses, compelling the others 
 
1>0KEK. 57 
 
 still to come up to that increase^ or to abandon 
 their share in the joool. 
 
 All *^ Agoing in/^ or '^^ raising ^^ of the j)ool^ as 
 well as all betting afterward, must be in regular 
 order, going around by the left ; no one going in, 
 making good, increasing the ante, or betting, 
 except in turn. 
 
 THE DRAW. "V 
 
 When all are in equally who intend to play, 
 each player in turn will have the privilege of 
 drawing ; that is, of throwing away any number 
 of his five cards and drawing as many others, to 
 try thus to better his hand. The cards thus 
 thrown up must be placed face downward on the 
 table, and, for convenience, in front of or near 
 the next dealer. 
 
 The dealer, passing around to the left, will 
 ask each player in turn how many cards he will 
 have, and deal him the number asked for from 
 the top of the pack, without their being seen. 
 The dealer, if he has gone in to play for the 
 pool, will in like manner help himself last. 
 
 The players must throw away their discarded 
 cards before taking up or looking at those they 
 draw. 
 
 In the game every player is for himself and 
 against all others, and to that end will not let 
 any of his cards be seen, nor betray the value of 
 
58 POKER. 
 
 his hand by drawing or playing out of his turn, 
 or by change of countenance or any other sign. 
 It is a great object to mystify your adversa- 
 ries up to the ^^call/^ when hands have to be 
 shown. To this end it is permitted to chaff 
 or talk nonsense, with a view of misleading 
 your adversaries as to the value of your hand ; 
 but this must be without unreasonably delaying 
 the game. 
 
 BETTING. 
 
 When the drawing is all complete, the betting 
 goes around in order, like the drawing, to the 
 left. The ante-man is the first to bet, unless he 
 has declined to play ; and in that case the first 
 to bet is the player nearest the dealer, on his 
 left. But the player entitled to bet first may 
 withhold his bet until the others have bet around 
 to him, which is called ^^ holding the age ]'' and 
 this, being an advantage, should, as a general 
 rule, be practiced. 
 
 Each bettor in turn must put into the pool a 
 sum equal at least to the first bet made ; but each 
 may in turn increase the bet, or raise it, as it 
 comes to him : in which case the bets, proceeding 
 around in order, must be made by each player 
 in his turn equal to the highest amount put in 
 by any one ; or else, failing to do that, the 
 party who fails must go out of the play, forfeit- 
 ing his interest in the pool. 
 
POKER. 59 
 
 When a player puts in only as much as has 
 been put in by each player who has preceded 
 him^ that is called '^ seeing ^^ the bet. 
 
 When a player puts in that much^ and raises 
 it, that is called seeing the bet and ^ Agoing 
 better.'' 
 
 When the bet goes around to the last bettor or 
 player who remains in, if he does not wish to 
 see and go better, he simply sees and ''^calls'' ; 
 and then all players must show their hands, and 
 Jhe highest hand wins the pool. 
 
 When any one declines to see the bet or the 
 increase of bet which has been made, he ^^lays 
 down '' his hand — that is, throws it up with the 
 cards face downward on the table. If all the 
 other players throw down their hands, the one 
 who remains in to the last wins, and takes the 
 pool without showing his hand. 
 
 To ''^blufi'' is to take the risk of betting high 
 enough on a poor hand, or a worthless one, to 
 make all the other players lay down their hands 
 without seeing or calling you. 
 
 When a hand is complete, so that the holder 
 of it can play without drawing to better it, that 
 is called a "^^paf hand. A bold player will 
 sometimes decline to draw any cards, and pre- 
 tend to have a pat hand, and play it as such, 
 when he has none. 
 
 A skillful player will watch and observe what 
 
60 POKER, 
 
 each player draws, the expression of the face, 
 the circumstances and manner of betting, and 
 judge, or try to judge, of the value of each hand 
 opposed to him accordingly. 
 
 No one is bound to answer the question how 
 many cards he drew, except the dealer ; and the 
 dealer is not bound to tell after the betting has 
 begun. 
 
 ij/ DRAWING. 
 
 If the player determines to draw to a pair, he 
 draws three cards. If he draws to two pairs, he 
 draws one card. 
 
 If he holds three to begin with, he draws two 
 cards, in order to have the best chance of mak- 
 ing a full, inasmuch as, in playing, pairs are apt 
 to run together ; but to deceive his adversaries, 
 and make them think he has nothing better 
 than two pairs, a sharp player will often draw 
 but one card to his three. 
 
 It is advisable, sometimes, to keep an ace, or 
 other high card, as an ''^ outsider, ^^ with a small 
 pair, and draw two cards, — thus taking the 
 chances of matching the high card, and so get- 
 ting a good two pairs, or something better pos- 
 sibly, while at the same time others may be 
 deceived into believing that the player is drawing 
 to threes. 
 
 When drawing to cards of the same suit to 
 try to make a flush, or to cards of successive 
 
POKER. 63 
 
 That fall counts highest of which the three 
 cards of the same denomination are highest. 
 The two cards of the same denomination help 
 only to constitute the full, but do not add to the 
 value of the hand. 
 
 When hands are equal so far that each party 
 holds a pair or two pairs of exactly the same 
 value, then the next highest card or cards in 
 each hand must be compared with the next high- 
 est card or cards in the other hand to determine 
 which wins. 
 
 In case of the highest hands (which very sel- 
 dom occurs) being exactly equal, the pool is di- 
 vided. 
 
 The main elements of success in the game are : 
 (1) good Inch ; (2) good cards ; (3) plenty of 
 cheeh ; and (4) good temper. 
 
 LAWS OF POKER. 
 
 ''It is the law:' 
 
 Measure for Measure. Act III., Scene M. 
 
 ' TTiough the above rules are good, they re- 
 quire amplification, and to meet a neiv generation 
 of players the folloiving laivs, which are the lat- 
 est, I noio summarize as follows : 
 
 DEALING. 
 
 1. One card is thrown face up to each player. 
 The lowest card deals. The ace is the lowest. 
 The king is the highest. 
 
64 POKER. 
 
 2. Cards are shuffled in sight. Every player 
 has a right to shuffle. The dealer shuffles last. 
 
 3. The player to the right of the dealer cuts. 
 
 4. One card at a time is given to each player, 
 beginning at the left. 
 
 5. The deal goes to the left. 
 
 6. A pack with a faced card, when dealt, re- 
 quires a new deal by the same dealer. Cards 
 are re-shuffled and cut as before. 
 
 7. When a card is faced in dealing, this turn- 
 ing of the card being due to the dealer, or any 
 other player, whether by accident or not, the 
 player must receive the card. 
 
 8. If two cards are exposed in the same way, 
 as described in Eule 7, there must be a new deal. 
 
 9. If a player raises his hand and discovers he 
 has the wrong number of cards, it is not a mis- 
 deal. He must discover it before raising the 
 hand from the table or forfeit his hand. 
 
 10. No play can be made without the exact 
 number of cards, which is five. 
 
 DISCARDING^ 
 
 11. After the first five cards are dealt, players 
 who remain in may discard up to five cards, and 
 ask for as many new cards as they require. The 
 discard begins at the age — the player at the left 
 of the dealer. Every player must discard in 
 his regular turn. The exact number of cards 
 
POKER. 65 
 
 asked for is given. Once cards are thrown away— i^ 
 they cannot be handled until the next deal. 
 
 12. Players cannot ask others what is the dis- 
 card as to numbers^ either before or after the 
 draw. (Formerly the rule read that before the 
 draw the question could be asked^ but not after 
 it.) The dealer must announce his own discard. 
 
 13. When more cards are offered by the dealer 
 than are asked for by the discard, the player, on 
 announcing that too many or not enough cards 
 are dealt him, can decline taking them, and the 
 dealer may correct the error. If, however, the 
 player accepts the cards from the dealer, and 
 looks at them, whether they be more or less than 
 the regular number he should have, which is 
 five, the player is ruled out of the game. 
 
 14. If, in asking for cards in the draw, one 
 card is turned or shown, the latest-accepted rule 
 is that this card cannot be taken. The dealer 
 takes the exposed card, puts it at the bottom of 
 the pack, proceeds to give the cards in order to 
 the next players, and when through then gives 
 a card to the player whose card has been turned. 
 If more than one card be turned in the draw, 
 the rule is the same. (This rule, though often 
 disputed, should be accepted.) 
 
 THE ANTE. 
 
 15. The player after the dealer must ante first, 
 before the deal. He puts up any number of 
 
66 POKER. 
 
 chips^ not exceeding half the limit. To come in 
 he has to double the ante^ as the other players 
 have to. The ante can never be more, when 
 first put up, than half the limit. 
 
 16. When the cards are dealt, players who 
 come in must double the ante. 
 
 17. The age comes in last, and makes his ante 
 good or not, at his option. 
 
 RAISES. 
 
 18. After the age any player, in his turn, 
 may raise. Any number of raises in turn are 
 in order. 
 
 19. After the draw, any player who is in, 
 commencing with the one to the left of the age, 
 can raise. 
 
 20. The eldest hand, the age, comes in last. 
 If the age declines making his blind good, not- 
 withstanding this, the first player after him must 
 bet first. The age never passes. 
 
 21. If a bet be raised by a player who is in his 
 regular turn, the next player must see the bet 
 or retire. 
 
 SHOWING HAND§, 
 
 22. A show of hands, putting them on the 
 table, face up, is a rule never to be departed 
 from when the call is made. 
 
 CALLING. 
 
 23. . When a player bets more than any one 
 
POKER. 67 
 
 else^ within the limits and no one calls or sees 
 him, he Avins. 
 
 ONCE OUT. 
 
 24. Once out of the game, a player can never 
 enter again. [No fotd hand can win under any 
 circumstances, except in a successful iluff.) 
 
 THE BLIND AND STRADDLE 
 
 25. The age alone can make the blind. The 
 next to the age can straddle. But the third 
 player after the age cannot begin to straddle. 
 The third player can straddle the straddler, 
 always within the limit. 
 
 26. The straddle cannot make the straddle and 
 raise at the same time. (There is no rule less ob- 
 served than the one that the age never passes. 
 This rale, No. 20, should be faithfully observed.) 
 
 RULES FOR THE JACKPOT, 
 
 27. Each player puts up as many chips as the 
 one having the age. 
 
 28. The opening hand must have a pair of 
 jacks or better. 
 
 29. If no player can come in, another chip is 
 added by each player, and a second round begins. 
 
 30. After the opener, to the left of him all the 
 players can come in, providing they see the 
 amount he bets. 
 
 31. The opening bet must be put up before 
 the draw. 
 
68 POKER. 
 
 32. The opener makes the first bet. 
 
 33. The last person to bet is the player, who 
 is to the right of the opener. 
 
 34. All raises, as in poker, are in regular 
 order. 
 
 35. For an error in opening a jack-pot, the 
 person having made the mistake retires from the 
 game. The penalty for the mistake is for him 
 to put up a jack-pot equal in chips to the one 
 he has entered into in error. 
 
 .;36. In the case of an error of this kind, any 
 other player, to the left of the putative opener, 
 having a pair of jacks or better can open. 
 
 37. If the error is found out after the cards 
 have been drawn, and no hand has a pair of 
 openers, that round of jack-pots is null and void. 
 
 38. A jack-pot cannot be opened by a player 
 drawing for a straight or a flush. Any other 
 player but the opener can draw for what he 
 pleases. (See the explanations for this appar- 
 ently arbitrary rule.) 
 
 (The laws governing the playing of the jack- 
 pot require remodeling. This peculiar phase of 
 poker is not old enough to have crystallized into 
 its concrete form. As it is universally played, 
 stringent rules should be adopted for it. Such 
 rules as are presented are in accordance with those 
 employed in New York City. The right to 
 play the jack-pot at all is disputed by many 
 
POKEE. 69 
 
 players. The argument against it is that it is a 
 diabolical invention of kitty. It is true that 
 the more frequent are jack-pots, the larger the 
 earnings of the kitty. ) 
 
 All the rules of poher are made to prevent 
 fraud. Every rule should he strictly adhered to. 
 
 VALUE OF THE HANDS AT POKER. 
 
 " Our hands are full."'' 
 
 Henry ly.. Part I. Act III., Scene 2d, 
 
 Singly each card possesses its ordinary value, 
 as in whist. 
 
 NO PAIRS. 
 
 The lowest hand is one in which, in the five 
 cards, there are no pairs, nor are the cards of the 
 same suifc, nor is there a sequence. Its value 
 would depend on its highest card. Thus, one 
 hand may contain a two of spades, a four of 
 hearts, an eight of diamonds, a jack of clubs, 
 and an ace of diamonds. This hand would be 
 better than one which held only a king of dia- 
 monds as its highest card. It is not uncom- 
 mon, even when betting is made on a false 
 straight, that when one adversary calls the other 
 no pair can be shown. Then the highest card 
 wins. (See farther on in regard to straights and 
 flushes.) 
 
70 POKER. 
 
 ONE PAIR. 
 
 The values of the cards being the same as in 
 whist, a pair of threes, as the three of diamonds 
 and three of spades, is better than the deuce of 
 diamonds or the deuce of spades, as a pair of 
 aces are better than a pair of kings or a pair 
 of queens better than a pair of jacks. If each 
 player, when two are engaged, has pairs which 
 are alike, as, say, each one has a pair of queens, 
 the next highest card wins. Say the two 
 players had each queens. In one hand is a 
 king, in the other a jack. The hand with the 
 queens and king would win. Occasionally this 
 parity of hands may require the second or even 
 the third card after the pair to decide on the 
 value of the hand. One of the rarest things is 
 to see the same cards held exactly by two hands. 
 This may occur, but never when threes, fulls, 
 or fours are held. (Threes and fulls will be 
 explained later.) 
 
 TWO PAIRS. 
 
 Two pairs beat a single pair. Of the two 
 pairs the higher wins when pitted against any 
 other two pairs. A pair of aces and a pair 
 of deuces are better than a pair of kings and 
 a pair of queens. A pair of sixes and threes 
 are better than a pair of fives and fours. If 
 
POKER. 71 
 
 the two pairs are alike^ then the single card 
 left decides the value of the hand. 
 
 THREES OR TRIPLETS. 
 
 By threes or triplets is meant that the player 
 holds three cards of the same value, as three 
 aces, or three tens, or three deuces. The three 
 highest win. There can be no similarity of 
 hands in threes. 
 
 THE STRAIGHT. 
 
 The straight, sometimes called a sequence, 
 means that five cards are held which ascend in 
 exact valueSi Thus, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, 7, 8, 
 9, 10, are numerical sequences. The straight 
 has no reference to color. A straight may be 
 composed of the five of hearts, six of diamonds, 
 seven of clubs, eight of spades, and nine of 
 hearts. The ace, king, queen, jack, ten, irre- 
 spective of suits, is a straight. The ace, how- 
 ever, in a straight may change in value, for it 
 may be taken as the beginning of the straight ; 
 thus, an ace, a deuce, three, four, and five is 
 a straight, but it is the lowest one ; it would 
 be beaten by a two, three, four, five, and six. 
 As in all valuations, the best or highest straight 
 or sequence wins. A straight beginning with 
 a nine and ending with a king is not as good 
 as one commencing with a ten and ending 
 with an ace. Two hands may hold straights 
 
72 POKEB. 
 
 of the same value ; and when this happenft 
 the pool is divided between the two players 
 holding the straights. 
 
 FLUSH. 
 
 When five cards of the same suit are held, 
 this is a flush. Any five spades, or five clubs, 
 diamonds, or hearts, is a flush. The hand hold- 
 ing the highest card in the flush wins. A two, 
 three, four, five, headed by an ace of the same 
 suit, is better than an eight, ten, jack, queen, 
 and king of the same suit. In the fiush two 
 hands may be made of exactly the same value ; 
 in this case the pool is divided, 
 
 THE FULL. 
 
 By the full is understood a hand which con- 
 tains not only threes, but a pair. Thus, a full 
 hand may be composed of three threes and two 
 deuces, or three aces and two kings. Just like 
 in two pairs, the higher threes decide in the 
 value of the hand. Three fours and two twos 
 are better than three threes and two aces. Two 
 similar hands in a full do not exist. 
 
 FOURS. 
 
 This is a rare hand to hold, and means that 
 in the five cards, four cards are of the same 
 value. Thus four .deuces is a four, as are four 
 
POKER. 73 
 
 aces. The highest fours win. There can be no 
 similar hands in fours. 
 
 THE STRAIGHT FLUSH. 
 
 This is the most unusual of all hands to hold^ 
 and is the highest in value. By a straight flush 
 is meant that the five cards are not alone of the 
 same suit^ but have a regular numerical progres- 
 sion. It is not only a straight^ but also a flush. 
 Thus, a two^ three, four, five^ six of spades is a 
 straight flush^ as is a ten, jack, queen, king, and 
 ace of clubs or any other suit. Many games of 
 poker may be played and a straight flush never 
 seen. Two straight flushes of the same value 
 may be made at the same time. It is within 
 the possibility of cards, but players have rarely, 
 if ever^ seen this double event. 
 
 RECAPITULATION. 
 
 The values of the hands at poker are in the 
 following order : 
 
 1. No pairs. (Highest card wins.) 
 
 2. One pair. 
 .3. Two pairs. 
 
 4. Threes or triplets. 
 
 5. The straight or sequence. 
 
 6. The flush. 
 7. -The full. 
 
 8. FourSo 
 
 9. The straight flush. 
 
74 POKEK. 
 
 HOW THE GAME IS PLAYED. 
 
 '' But is this law?''' 
 
 Hamlet. Act F., Scene 1st. 
 
 Poker is played with a full pack of 52 cards. 
 
 The number of players should be limited to 
 six. Five is the best number^ but seven can 
 play ; but when seven play^ as each player re- 
 ceives five cards thirty-five cards have been dealt, 
 and this only leaves seventeen cards. As every 
 player has five cards dealt to him and has a right 
 to draw five cards^ there are not sufficient cards 
 for this ; and when seven play recourse must be 
 had to the discard. JSfoiv, as every rule in jpoTcer 
 is devised as a protection agaiiist fraud, seven 
 players should not ie permitted. 
 
 For the deal^ as in whist^ one card is thrown 
 to each person^ face up^ and the lowest deals. 
 There is some slight advantage in dealing. The 
 cards are shuffled^ and cut by the person to the 
 left of the dealer. The dealer gives in rotation 
 one card singly to each player, dealing the cards 
 to the left. The deal goes to the left. Each 
 player receives five cards. 
 
 Before the deal commences, the player to the 
 left of the dealer puts his stake on the table. 
 This player to the left is called the age, and the 
 stake he puts up is called the blind. It is an in- 
 vitation, as it were, to the others to make their 
 
POKER. 75 
 
 A 
 
 bets. This player who has the age has certain 
 advantages or disadvantages^ which will be after- 
 ward explained. As the deal always goes to the 
 left^ the deal passing after every round of the 
 game^ the position of the age is always changing 
 in regular order. 
 
 A Dealer. 
 
 The circle represents the table^ and A, B^ 0, 
 D^ E^ the players. When A deals, B is the age, 
 and must ante. As the deal goes to the left, 
 after every round, B would be the next dealer and 
 C the age. When E is dealer, A is the age. 
 
 Before the dealer gives any cards, or the game 
 is commenced, a limit is agreed upon. The ne- 
 cessity of a limit must be at once insisted upon, 
 because no game of poker is possible without it. 
 It acts as a curb, and prevents losses. To play 
 without a limit would be the same as to wager 
 $1000 in a game of whist or euchre. It may be 
 
76 POKER. 
 
 then supposed that the players A, B^ C, D^ and 
 E have agreed that ten cents be the limit. 
 When A deals^ B may put on the table one chip, 
 the chip representing one cent, and he does this 
 before receiving any cards. He may put up 
 two, three, four, or five chips, but when he 
 reaches five chips he is at the limit of the game, 
 because should he or any of the other players 
 come in, he or they would have to double the 
 blind, which if he put up five would be ten, and 
 ten is the limit of the game. If he put up one 
 he would have to double it if he came in. ^No 
 bet then can be made of any kind higher than 
 ten chips, if ten be the limit. But the ten chips 
 or ten cents can be accepted as the wager and 
 ten chips more bet, and this ten repeated over 
 and over again, but eleven chips cannot be bet. 
 The limit is ten. The person who is the age 
 has the advantage of playing or betting last. If 
 he has good cards he may be willing to come in. 
 He has one chip on the table, which he will lose 
 if any one else comes in, and he is unwilling to 
 put up another chip. If he has a bad hand he 
 abandons his one chip. This is to his disadvan- 
 tage. The advantage of the position is that if he 
 has a good hand, being the last player, he can aug- 
 ment the stake. An augmentation of the stake 
 by the age will be afterward explained. 
 
 It is C who makes the first wager, or C may 
 
POKEK. 
 
 77 
 
 have nothing. Then D may come in^ or E^ or 
 the dealer^ A. It is never obligatory to play in 
 poker ; you may make a wager or not as you 
 please^ with the exception of the age^ who must 
 risk a chip. 
 
 Two aces. 
 
 Two pairs, 
 fives and sixes. 
 
 A Dealer. 
 Nothing. 
 
 With the diagram and the players an imag- 
 inary game can now be carried on. 
 
 A deals^ B puts up one chip for a blind, the! 
 limit of betting is ten, and the cards are dealt 
 five to each person. The cards are looked at. 
 C is the first to bet. Say he has a pair of aces 
 in his hand ; D two pairs, a pair of fives and a 
 pair of sixes ; E has three twos ; A, the dealer, 
 no pairs at all, a valueless hand ; and B, who 
 comes in last, four hearts. C, D, E have all of 
 them cards of some value ; B has, so far, cards 
 which are worthless, but if he could get an- 
 
78 POKER. 
 
 other heart he would have an excellent hand, 
 and make a flush. C, D, E come in, as does B. 
 They each have put up two chips, and B, who 
 was the age, makes his stake good by putting up 
 another chip. A, the dealer, who holds noth- 
 ing, does not enter at all. Now the cards are 
 drawn, just as in ecarte. The players ask for 
 cards, and can take up to five cards — that is, as 
 many cards as they want. B, who is after the 
 dealer, is helped first. He asks for one card.. 
 He has four hearts, and wants to get another 
 heart. C, who has two aces, asks for three cards. 
 He may make two pairs, taking in another pair, 
 or he might draw another ace, which would 
 make him three aces, or he might draw three 
 cards all of the same value, a triplet, making 
 him a full, or he might take in two more aces, 
 making him have four of a kind. D, who has 
 two pairs, fives and sixes, might also, by taking 
 one card, get another five or six, and so have a full. 
 E, who has three twos, might draw two cards, 
 helping, just like C, to make four or a full. 
 A, who dealt, has nothing, and does not ask for 
 new cards, for, once having passed, he is out of 
 the game for the round. 
 
 B, who was the age, has four hearts. It might 
 be that he held the two, three, four, and five of 
 hearts. Should he draw the six of hearts he 
 would have a straight flush, which would be 
 
POKEK. 79 
 
 almost invincible. If his hand consisted of the 
 ace, king, queen, jack, and he were to draw the 
 ten, there would be no possibility of his losing. 
 If he drew any heart, he would make a single 
 flush, which is a strong hand. The cards are 
 then dealt, the dealer giving to each one exactly 
 the number of cards he asks for. 
 
 B, one card, drawn to a flush. 
 
 C, three cards, drawn to a pair. 
 
 D, one card, drawn to two pairs. 
 
 E, two cards, drawn to threes. 
 
 The discarded cards are thrown toward the 
 dealer before the new cards are given. Now 
 the question arises : Whose hand has been im- 
 proved ? Nobody can tell. C's two aces is a 
 fair hand ; but of all of them before the draw 
 E's was the best hand, he had three deuces. 
 The player may gain some information as to the 
 character of the hands from the number of cards 
 drawn. If a player had drawn five new cards, 
 or four new cards, the certainty would be that 
 he held in neither case a pair, but was trusting 
 to luck to draw something. E has taken two 
 cards. That looks as if he had threes. D and 
 B have both taken one card. Either of them 
 may hold threes. This might not be likely, 
 or they would have shown perhaps by an early 
 bet that they held good hands. But nothing 
 
 i^ 
 
80 POKER. 
 
 absolutely certain can be gleaned from the draw, 
 for B, who has nothing, may be drawing for a 
 card to make a straight, or a flush, or he may 
 have two pairs. 
 
 Let the giving of the new cards in this case, 
 B, C, D, and E, have their hands precisely in 
 the same condition as before the draw. has 
 his pair of aces ; D his two pairs ; E his three 
 twos ; B has drawn a spade, and his hand is 
 good for nothing — just as it was when he came 
 in. Now the betting commences. C wagers 
 one chip; D '^'^sees it,^^ or puts up one chip; 
 he has two pairs ; E, who has three twos, wagers 
 the one chip of C and D, and '^^ raises ^^ them 
 ten chips. B is frightened. It is his turn next, 
 and he goes out, relinquishing his two chips. 
 If C, with one pair of aces, is a conservative 
 player, has gone out, D, who has only two small 
 pairs, will give up also. Then all the players 
 having declined to "^^see^^ or bet E's ten chips, 
 E will take the pool. There has been no bluff- 
 ing. E has simply backed up his hand. Not 
 being called, he is not forced to show his hand. 
 
 Suppose, however, in the drawing, a good or 
 helping card had been secured by only 0, who 
 held the pair of aces, and that he had drawn 
 another ace. When B passed out, C, having the 
 best threes, would have seen E^s hand, accepted 
 the wager of ten, and raised an additional ten. 
 
POKER. 81 
 
 J), with two pairs only, caught between the 
 cross-fires, would have beaten a precipitate ^— 
 retreat. E, with three twos, might have thought 
 that C was bluflfing. Prudence would dictate 
 his not betting any more. He would have only 
 seen C, and the hands being exposed, C^s three 
 aces would have won the twenty-one chips E had 
 bet. Having been called by E, both hands are 
 shown. 
 
 Taking the same condition of hands, B with a -~ P ^' 
 flush to draw, C with two aces, D with two pairs, ' ^ 
 and E with three twos, we will suppose that 
 there has been this time no improvement in the 
 hands. The betting is the same as before. 
 C bets one chip, D sees it, and E goes ten bet- 
 ter. B has not improved his hand at all. He 
 thinks that E also actually has three twos and is 
 bluffing. He sees E^s ten, and bets ten better. 
 C and D are frightened out as before. E is not 
 quite certain. B may have made a straight or a - 
 full. His threes are the smallest in the pack. 
 E may have been in bad luck. He hesitates. 
 B looks very determined. E gives up, will not 
 see the additional ten, and then B wins, or takes 
 the pool and the wagers. He does not show his 
 hand. He has not been called. This is a legit- 
 imate bluff. B, being the age, has had some 
 little advantage of the position. 
 
 Taking again the same players with the same 
 
82 POKER. 
 
 cards : suppose the hands had feeen improved by 
 the drawing ; that C had drawn two more 
 aces, that D had drawn another six, that E had 
 added two kings to his threes, and that B had 
 made that ra?^a avis, a straight flush. Then the 
 ten^ as a limit, would be repeated by each player 
 any number of times. C with the four aces 
 knows that in all the multitudinous changes of 
 cards there can be but one chance against him — 
 the straight flush. To his misfortune, when the 
 hands are called he finds this straight flush. If 
 D and E are intelligent players, after they have 
 made several bets which their adversaries have 
 capped with other bets, they would have gone 
 out, satisfied that they held losing hands. No 
 combination of cards is impossible in poker. 
 Two hands, each holding fours, have been often 
 seen struggling for the victory, and fours have 
 more than once succumbed to a straight flush. 
 
 THE ELDER HAND. 
 
 The condition of the elder hand or age must 
 now be considered in regard to such advantage 
 as it may possess, and raising in general be ex- 
 plained. Before any new cards are taken, raising 
 is legitimate. Eeferring to the diagram of the 
 table and players, B being the age, and the last 
 one to come in, C, D, E, and A have seen the 
 wager of two chips, or ten chips ; when it is B's 
 
POKER. 
 
 83 
 
 turn to come in he can say : ^^I make my ante 
 good; or my blind good^ and I raise it ten/^ 
 This is the bet before any cards have been dealt. 
 If then (as in the after case, when cards have 
 been drawn, as previously explained) C, D, or E 
 and A do not see B's bet^ though they have put 
 up their two chips each, B wins. If any of the 
 players^ howeyer^ see this extra wager of ten, 
 made before new cards are given, they are all 
 said '' to stay in.^^ Then the new cards are given 
 to them as before, and the status of the game 
 remains the same. 
 
 A Dealer 
 
 B being the age, the others coming in with 
 inferior hands, say, B has the best cards, a 
 flush. As he is the last to come in, when it is 
 his turn he makes his ante good and raises 
 it ten before cards are drawn. All the other 
 players are frightened and go out. They will 
 
84 POKER, 
 
 not see the wager ; B takes the two chips or 
 the ten chips each of the others has put up at 
 the beginning. He need not show his hand^ 
 because no one had seen his bet. Suppose^ how- 
 ever^ all had gone out but D, who held two pairs^ 
 or one pair ; D draws one card and makes a 
 full;, or three cards and makes a full^ he would 
 accept any of B^s bets^ and the wagers would be 
 exactly as in the former cases cited. But if he 
 supposed B^ the age^ had nothing at all^ and 
 raised ten at the starts before any cards were 
 taken^ he might not draw any cards at all^ or 
 only one card. Other players^ who came in 
 with one pair, or two small pairs, might not see 
 his next bet, that is, if he carried out his pur- 
 pose of betting the limit. They would believe 
 that he really held a strong hand. 
 
 This is one of the advantages of the position, 
 and is called holding the age. Raising can be 
 made, however, by any of the players. Say B, 
 the age, has put up his blind, one chip. C comes 
 in, sees the chip ; putting up his two, and rais- 
 ing it two. This would be bad play, because C 
 would intimidate only the age, B, and drive him 
 out. There are three more players to come 
 after him. It would be bad policy then for C to 
 raise. He would, if a good player, wait. If 
 any one raised after him, before cards were taken, 
 he would see this raise, and possibly raise it 
 
POKER. 
 
 85 
 
 again. Taking again the explanation with the 
 diagram^ the following case is presented : 
 
 Three 
 deuces. 
 
 Two small 
 pairs. 
 
 A Dealer 
 A flush to draw. 
 
 C comes in. It is not his place to raise^ nor 
 is it DX hut E^ with three kings, raises the ante 
 ten. A, who has a chance to make a flush, 
 comes in, as do B and C. D may or may not 
 come in. Say D goes out. B, C, and A have 
 met E's raise. Cards are drawn with no im- 
 provement. C bets first, say one chip. D is 
 out. E, who has originally raised the blind, 
 bets ten more. A, whose hand has not improved, 
 passes out. B, who has three aces, sees the 
 new bet of ten, and bets ten more. is intim- 
 idated. E believes he has the best hand, and 
 may make another bet. Say he sees B, and on 
 showing cards he loses. Innumerable combina- 
 
86 POKER. 
 
 tions might be presented : as of D holding three 
 kings^ an E three aces ; C coming in with the 
 ante^ and D seeing the raise of ten before cards 
 have been drawn^ and raising it ten more. 
 
 Two hands may each hold flushes^ and stand- 
 ing ^^pat/'' that is^ having good cards (a per- 
 fect hand, before a card is drawn), raise each 
 other in the first stage of the game. In poker 
 position has much to do with the game, and the 
 age has only this advantage of position, for the 
 chances of his having a good hand, so as not to 
 lose the one chip he has been forced to put up, are 
 small. He wagers his chip without having seen 
 his cards, while the others know what they have 
 before they come in. 
 
 It is in '^^ raising, ^^ entirely apart from such 
 cheating as may arise from " forcing a card,^^ 
 that fraud in poker is possible, and a fraud 
 exceedingly difficult to detect. A player may 
 be '^ forced out ^^ or ^' raised out '' by a combina- 
 tion of two players who have previously agreed 
 to such a rascally performance. Taking the 
 diagram with the same players, C and E, or any 
 two players, may have agreed to combine and 
 raise out other players. This conspiracy, as has 
 been stated, is exceedingly difficult to detect. 
 Players have not the right to even say to one 
 another in private, '^When I raise you, you 
 may be sure I have a hand.^"" It gives to each of 
 
POKER. 87 
 
 them an undue advantage. It is a secret ar- 
 rangement^ and^ being such^ is nothing else 
 than a fraud. 
 
 OF DRAWING. 
 
 If the player determines to draw to a pair, 
 he draws three cards. If he draws to two pairs, 
 he draws one card. 
 
 If he holds three to begin with, he draws two 
 cards, in order to have the best chance of making 
 a full, inasmuch as in playing pairs are apt to run 
 together. But to deceive his adversaries, and 
 make them think he has nothing better than two 
 pairs, a sharp player will draw but one card to 
 his threes. 
 
 It is advisable sometimes to keep an ace or 
 other high card as an '^^ outsider ^^ with a small 
 pair, and draw two cards — thus taking the 
 chances of matching the high card, and so get- 
 ting two good pairs, or possibly something better, 
 — while at the same time others may be deceived 
 into believing that the player is drawing to threes. 
 
 When drawing to cards of the same suit to 
 try to make a flush, or to cards of successive 
 denominations to try to make a sequence, only 
 one card is to be taken. This will be needed to 
 fill out the flush or the sequence. But it is 
 seldom advisable to venture a draw for either a 
 flush or sequence when more than one card is re- 
 quired to complete the hand„ 
 
88 POKER. 
 
 • When a player holds fours in his original 
 hand^ this is as good as it can be ; and yet it is 
 best to throw away the outside card and draw 
 one, because others may then think he is only 
 drawing to two pairs, or for a flush or sequence, 
 and will not suspect the value of the hand. 
 
 When one is in (though he ought seldom to 
 be) without even as much as a pair, his choice 
 must be either to discard four cards, or three 
 cards, and draw to the highest or two highest 
 in the hand, or throw away the whole hand and 
 draw five, or look content and serious, stand pat, 
 and bet high. 
 
 The player determining to try this last alter- 
 native on a worthless hand had generally better 
 begin by raising when he goes in, or else nobody 
 will be likely to believe in his pretended strong 
 hand. 
 
 PROBABILITIES. 
 
 The probabilities of receiving a specified poker 
 hand in the deal are as follows : 
 
 Fours 
 
 
 4,164 " 
 693 '' 
 
 Full 
 
 
 Flush 
 
 
 507 '' 
 
 Straight ( sequence ) 
 Threes 
 
 
 254 " 
 45 " 
 
 Two T)airs .... 
 
 
 20 " 
 
 One pair .... 
 
 
 lA " 
 
 
 Or, 10 in 
 
 13 '' 
 
POKER. 89 
 
 The draw, of course, modifies these j)ropor- 
 tions, and gives the player increased chances. 
 But it would require too much space to give the 
 chances in these cases, 
 
 TECHNICAL TERMS KNOWN IN POKER. 
 
 The Age. — Designation of the player whose 
 place is after the dealer. The age never passes. 
 
 The A:n'TE. — The bet made by the dealer, 
 and applicable to any of the stakes put up in 
 the game, at the entrance of the players. 
 
 Blaze. — A hand which holds all the picture 
 cards, an ace being considered as a court card. 
 It beats two pairs. The blaze is rarely played, 
 and should be ruled out. 
 
 Blixd. — This is the stake put up by the age. 
 He doubles it if he wishes to play. Not want- 
 ing to play, he abandons it. All the players 
 double the blind. 
 
 Call. — This term means that one player sees 
 the bet of another, and will not advance the bet. 
 Then the cards are shown. But it is only the 
 last bettor, or the one nearest to the player to the 
 right of the person who has raised, who can call, 
 and so calling, no one else betting higher, this 
 closes the game. 
 
 Chips. — Counters. 
 
 To CHIP 1^. — To put counters on the table. 
 Equivalent to entering into the game. 
 
90 POKER. 
 
 Discard. — To throw out cards from the 
 hand first dealt. 
 
 Draw. — To take new cards. 
 
 Eldest Haj^d. — The player to the left of 
 the dealer. 
 
 Filling. — To improve the hand by means of 
 the cards drawn. 
 
 Freeze-Out. — Five players each take the 
 same number of cards, and play until one of 
 them has won all the chips or counters. Those 
 who lose are '^^ frozen out.^^ 
 
 Going Better. — When a player raises or 
 bets an amount higher than the player to the 
 right of him, he ^'^ raises. ^^ 
 
 Goii^G In, — The elder hand makes his 
 ^^ blind good^^ ; that is, he accepts the wagers of 
 the rest, and adding more chips, makes his blind 
 good. Any one entering the game '^'^goes in.^^ 
 
 Goii^G Out. — The reverse of the above. 
 
 Limit. — Before a game is commenced it is 
 agreed that so many chips shall be the limit. 
 Above this no bet can be made ; but the amount 
 of the limit in the betting may be made over 
 and over again. No game ever should be played 
 without a limit. 
 
 Makikg Good. — Putting up the number of 
 chips any one else has bet. 
 
 Original Hakd. — The first five cards dealt 
 before the draw. 
 
POKER. 91 
 
 Pat Hakd. — Is a hand as it is first dealt, by 
 supposition only a perfect hand ; as a straight^ 
 a flush, or a full. A pat hand may have nothing 
 in it. ^'^I play pat/^ means that a player does 
 not want any cards in the draw. 
 
 Pass. — When a player does not come in at 
 all^ or gives up his hand after a raise, this is a 
 pass. 
 
 The Pot. — All the chips on the table. 
 
 To See. — Is equivalent to calling a bet. 
 
 To Straddle. — To double the ante. 
 
 There are innumerable cant terms peculiar to 
 localities. To keep two small cards and an ace 
 is called holding up '^ a kicker.'^ This draw is 
 made by the player, hopeful of getting two pairs, 
 with the additional ace or king. The term two 
 pairs, ^^ queens up,^^ means that the queens are 
 the highest cards of the two pairs. '' Tens up '^ 
 would mean that the tens were the highest cards. 
 A f ull^ ''^ kings up ^^ ; a flush, '^'^ace up^^; can 
 be at once understood. When a big bet is made 
 which drives out the other players, they are 
 sometimes said to be ^^ blown out. ■'^ 
 
 THE JACK-POT= 
 
 The jack-pot may be an innovation, and con- 
 trary to the traditions of the game, but it is 
 universally accepted to-day. It differs from any- 
 thing else in the game, because it arbitrarily 
 
92 POKER. 
 
 forces every player to ante. In all other phases 
 of poker it is only the age who antes. In the 
 prehistoric period of poker the way of playing 
 when every one passed out was for the age to 
 withdraw his ante. When he dealt^ in his turn, 
 the next age put up the ante. It was not un- 
 usual for several rounds to be dealt, and for 
 everybody to pass out. This became monoto- 
 nous ; and then somebody invented the jack- 
 pot. 
 
 The way of playing the jack-pot is as follows : 
 When all pass out, the age leaves up his ante, 
 and all the other players put up their antes or 
 chips in equal amounts to the age's ante. The 
 cards are dealt for the next round by the next 
 player. It differs again from the ordinary game, 
 inasmuch as there is no elder hand, no one hold- 
 ing the age. 
 
 To open the jack-pot, some one must have at 
 the least a pair of jacks. He can open it then 
 with jacks or better. But if no one has a pair 
 of jacks, or better, each player again contributes 
 a chip, and a new deal is in order. A half 
 dozen rounds may be dealt, and the jack-pot not 
 opened. There is nothing obligatory about enter- 
 ing. A player may hold a pair of jacks and not 
 open. Supposing a player has a pair of jacks or 
 better, he opens the jack-pot, that is, he wagers 
 so many chips. The rest see it, or not^ as they 
 
POKER. 93 
 
 please. If they do not see his wager^ he takes 
 the pot. The opener makes^ however^ the first 
 bet^ and the betting proceeds to his left as in the 
 ordinary game. 
 
 Sometimes^ by prior arrangement^ an ascend- 
 ing scale is determined on for opening the jack- 
 pot^ beginning with jacks. At the first rounds 
 say it is not opened^ no one having jacks or bet- 
 ter. Then for the second rounds queens or bet- 
 ter are required ; for the third, kings or better ; 
 and for the fourth, aces or better. Sometimes, 
 when the round of aces is reached, the opening 
 continues at aces. Occasionally, the opening 
 changes in the descending scale, after aces are 
 reached, going down to kings, then to queens, 
 and to jacks again. But this ascending or de- 
 scending scale is not often played, becanso it 
 leads to frequent mistakes. The best way is to 
 make jacks the openers, and to keep the opening 
 at jacks. Of course anything better than jacks, 
 as a pair of queens, kings, or aces, and all the 
 other combinations, open the jack-pot. The 
 opener of the jack-pot must show his hand at 
 the end of the round. 
 
 There is one case of opening the jack-pot 
 which leads to many disputes. The rule being 
 that jacks will open the pot, how shall this be 
 construed when a player has a pair of jacks, his 
 hand being made up, say, of the jack of dia- 
 
94 POKER. 
 
 monds^ the jack of hearts, and three other hearts ? 
 He has a perfect right to open. He has in his 
 jacks the key to the situation. But has he the 
 privilege of throwing away a jack^ say his jack 
 of diamonds, and then draw, hoping to make a 
 heart flush ? Now, it may happen that A opens, 
 and has the two jacks, with the combination of 
 cards just presented, B and C come in, and D 
 raises. A may want to take the risk of throw- 
 ing away his jack of diamonds, so as to draw the 
 flush. Sometimes it has been decided that the 
 player may draw for the flush, on condition that 
 he puts the card he discards face down before 
 him, so that he may show after the round 
 that he had a pair of jacks, because there is a 
 penalty, to be explained afterward, for a mis- 
 take made in opening the jack-pot. It has 
 been declared that this drawing to a flush can- 
 not be made. In some clubs an arrangement 
 has been made, that the person drawing for the 
 flush should announce the same, exhibiting the 
 discarded picture-card. But this is all against 
 the opener of the jack-pot, as it exposes his 
 hand. The best authorities on this subject have 
 decided that the player opening the jack-pot must 
 show cards which contained the positive evidence 
 that he held a hand of a fixed value. It may 
 be improved by the draw, as a pair made, two 
 pairs, or threes, or fulls, but if he is the opener^ 
 
POKER. 95 
 
 he cannot draw to a straight or a flush. Aside 
 from an exact construction of the rule^ as jack- 
 pots are the most important of all the phases 
 of the game, the amount of chips on the table 
 being the largest^ when it is played^ to put a 
 card on the table is to favor fraud. The editor, 
 notwithstanding many differences of ideas ad- 
 vanced in regard to this point, is most decidedly 
 of the opinion that this rule should be enforced. 
 Of course this has nothing to do with the rest 
 of the players who come in. They may draw 
 as they please, and come in with anything they 
 like. 
 
 When a jack-pot is opened through a mistake 
 of the player, he has to pay for his error, and 
 this penalty should be insisted upon. This pen- 
 alty varies according to agreement. Sometimes 
 the person making the blunder is mulcted to 
 three times the amount in the pot. This we 
 think to be too severe. The fact of making the 
 mistake, though the error is discovered before 
 the cards are drawn, makes no difference. The 
 party making the blunder is ruled out. Suppose 
 that A has made this mistake, is not aware of it 
 at once, and B, C, D, and E enter. A declares 
 his mistake, and is ruled out. Then the round 
 may begin over again ; but if any others of the 
 players have a pair of opening cards, they open 
 the pot. The status of the other players is not 
 
96 POKER. 
 
 changed by A^s mistake. Even if A does not 
 find out Ms error^ and has drawn cards^ and the 
 others have done the same^ and then A makes 
 known his error^ the rule holds good. If the 
 others have not had openers^ even if one player 
 with a pair of deuces had drawn two other 
 deuces, it makes no matter. It is for this reason 
 that the hand of the person opening the jack- 
 pot should always be closely scrutinized. He 
 must expose it after the round, whether he has 
 lost or won. 
 
 The temptation to open a jack-pot by a ras- 
 cally player being great, the pot always being 
 large, the utmost vigilance should be used. Ex- 
 perience shows that a great many of the frauds 
 of poker are concentrated around jack-pots. 
 
 THE STRADDLE. 
 
 " I shall raise you hy and hy^ 
 
 Julius Ccesar. Act lY., Scene 3d. 
 
 The straddle is simply an augmentation of 
 the original ante. A being the dealer, B the 
 age, and putting up, say, one chip, it being so 
 far two chips to come in, C may straddle — that 
 is, he puts up two chips, and says, " I straddle. ^^ 
 Then it takes four chips to come in. If B wants 
 to make his blind good he puts in three more 
 chips, as do all the other players. But if B de- 
 clines to see the straddle, C takes B^s chip. When 
 
POKEK. 97 
 
 the anteing takes place^ or coming in prior to 
 receiving cards in the draw^ the person who has 
 straddled is the last to ante^ or make good. This 
 gives him the opportunity of position^ and he 
 can raise. When the draw is completed^ B^'s 
 age is retained^ just as heretofore^ and he has the 
 last betting. The advantage to the straddler is 
 only before the draw. But the straddle must 
 come from the player after the age^ and from no 
 other. A dealings B is the age^ and C can strad- 
 dle — E cannot^ but E can over-straddle B within 
 the limit. 
 
 THE AGE. 
 
 " Ma7'Jc you this.'''' 
 Much Ado About Nothing. Act /., Scene 1st. 
 
 Although everybody is supposed to know what 
 the '^ age ^' means at poker^ there is no rule 
 more commonly blundered about. The rule 
 must be taken in its strictest sense. In no man- 
 ner whatsoever ought it to be departed from 
 except in jack-pot. If the age B passes out, 
 abandons his chip, and D comes in and all the 
 rest, though B is out of the game D must bet 
 first. It may be a relic of superstition, this 
 tenacious holding of the age, but all conservative 
 players insist on the maintenance of the rule. 
 What it does, when once established, is to pre- 
 clude constant mistakes and doubts as to the 
 first bet. 
 
98 POKER. 
 
 The only exception is then in the jack-pot. 
 In the jack-pot the age has made a forced con- 
 tribution^ and his age has gone^ according to 
 the rule of jack-pots. (See Jack-pot.) 
 
 ADVICE TO PLAYERS. 
 
 " Therefore he adnisedy 
 
 Merchant of Venice. Act 11.^ Scene 1st, 
 
 There are no rules for playing poker so as to 
 win. Advice may be given so as to limit losses. 
 All absolute laws as to how you must play end 
 in disaster. A good player varies his game. He 
 may play a poor game for a while on purpose. 
 To deceive is the acme of poker playing. The 
 strong point in poker is never to lose your tem- 
 per^ either with those you are playing with or, 
 more particularly, with the cards. There is no 
 sympathy at poker. Always keep cool. If you 
 lose your head you will lose all your chips. Po- 
 ker being as much a criterion of character as 
 anything else, keep in the shade your personali- 
 ties. As Mr. Cable has it, ^^ a man who can 
 play delightfully on a guitar and keep a knife 
 in his boot^^ (see p. 12) would be a perfect poker 
 player. Always believe in the equalization of 
 chances. If your king flush is beaten twice 
 hand running by an ace flush to-day, to-mor- 
 row you will hold the ace flushes and your 
 
POKER. 99 
 
 adversaries the king flushes. If you begin to 
 draw for flushes and straights and cannot fill 
 them, you must continue trying to fill them, 
 otherwise you throw away your chance of equal- 
 izing your draw. P ^jf^Tio-Pr i-^ ^^ ^ of the strong 
 pohits of p(>k pj\ just as much as cheek. He 
 who waits longest finds his opportunity. A player 
 who never bluffs at poker is not in sympathy 
 with the game. His battery is never niasked. 
 The enemy gives him a wide berth ; when his 
 guns are shotted no foes ever approach. He 
 fires a volley and kills a lame duck. Too much 
 curiosity is ruinous. All the money saved at 
 poker comes from not seeing. To be over-timid 
 is an equal fault. It is perfectly legitimate to 
 tell stories at poker. All is fair in love, war, 
 and poker. 
 
 To adhere to anything but the strictly truth- 
 ful brings with poker no moral obliquity. As 
 it is impossible for some players not to lie when 
 they play, this want of veracity brings its own 
 cure. It is not, however, a good rule to tell 
 stories about your hand. You may, if you have 
 the talent for such things, assume an innocent 
 guise with your face alone. This is the most 
 effective of lures. It is best never to show your 
 hand at all, if not called, and to remain silent in 
 regard to its merits. A solemn mystery in re- 
 gard to your cards is the most effective. Though 
 
100 POKER. 
 
 a hand which is miscalled when shown rests 
 solely on its face value^ avoid doing this. It 
 should^ in fact^ never be permitted. It induces 
 fraud. An adversary might throw down his 
 cards^ the winning ones^ when another player 
 announced something which he did not have. 
 As the holder of the best cards has thrown them 
 away^, they cannot be found again, and he loses, 
 whereas he should have won. It is, at the least, 
 an ungentlemanly trick. It irritates the best- 
 tempered players. When a player leaves the 
 room no hand should be dealt him, No two 
 persons ever ought to have an interest in the 
 same hand. The reasons for this are legion. 
 The strongest is, that it prevents rascality. 
 Then, again, when another player takes the hand 
 of a person who is not present, and enters or 
 makes a bet, it gives an additional strength to 
 the hand, which is unfair. Never play poker 
 without a limit. It is then the most dangerous 
 of all games. 
 
 POSITION AND PROBABILITIES. 
 
 " That the strait pass was damm'dy 
 
 Cymheline. Act F., Scene 3d. 
 
 The study of the theory of probabilities for the 
 playing of poker, ^. e.^ how to win at it, may be 
 very good in its way. The examination of the 
 chance laws is a most interesting one. For 
 
POKETt. 101 
 
 practical use they are of no value. No one save 
 a genius^ in the possession of an exceptional 
 memory, playing like an automaton, could carry 
 these laws into actual practice, and such a gifted 
 individual does not usually sit at a poker-table. 
 
 Everybody knows that before the draw one 
 pair is more commonly held than two pairs ; and 
 that after the draw, to receive another pair is 
 more usual than to get a third card, which 
 makes threes. The progression of difficulties is 
 at once understood when the scale of winning 
 combinations is examined, and for the rarity of 
 such combinations the laws of chance may be 
 studied. 
 
 For those interested in such mathematical 
 problems, the laws of chance relative to poker 
 are presented in this volume, due to such author- 
 ities as Pole and Proctor. '^'^ Cavendish ^^ has 
 also written a learned paper on this same topic, 
 but we do not print it, as being too abstract for 
 common use. 
 
 There are some very simple, common-sense 
 facts in poker in regard to the advantages of 
 position, which positions are, of course, always 
 changing. 
 
 The hand after the age, designated as C, after 
 A the dealer, and B the age, has the worst posi- 
 tion. If he has anything he comes in first, and 
 has to stand the entrance or the possible raises 
 
102 POKER. 
 
 of all who are after him. C then is in the posi- 
 tion of a man running the gauntlet. For posi- 
 tion the advantage lies with the last man, who 
 is the age. He winds up the performance. If 
 he happens to hold^a good hand, anything above 
 the average — as a pair of aces, or two pairs — he 
 should raise before the draw is made. The 
 chances are that he has the best hand, or even if 
 he has not, that he forces out some of the others. 
 They will not see his raise, and he carries off the 
 pool. 
 
 If all the other players go out, the dealer with 
 a low pair has a good chance of winning against 
 the blind. It is the exact reverse of the position 
 of C, who plays when he enters against four. A, 
 the dealer, plays only against B, the blind. The 
 chances are that the blind has nothing, and gives 
 up. 
 
 For the first player after the age, or C, to 
 raise is a stupidity. All he can do is then to 
 win the aged's half ante ; for if he has not a fair 
 hand, the age will give it up. This raise too at 
 the beginning drives out all the others, unless 
 they hold good hands. C must always play a 
 waiting game. If he has a strong hand, he sees 
 the raises or may raise in his turn. 
 
 If C comes in it is not wise for D to raise, be- 
 cause E and A and B are after him. The blind, 
 who is never given credit for holding anything, 
 
POKER. 103 
 
 is in the best position to raise^ not alone because 
 he is the last^ but for the reason that his raise is 
 the most unexpected. It is, therefore, good 
 tactics if he has a pair over the average to raise. 
 But the age still remains the most wasting as to 
 chips of all the positions. 
 
 If a player Avere to retain the age through a 
 whole game, there are ninety-nine chances in a 
 hundred that he would lose. A great many 
 chips are lost by the age by the mere fact of his 
 doubling his ante, or making his blind good, re- 
 lying on his holding one small pair, lower than 
 the average. Taking three minutes as the 
 average time to finish one round at poker, when 
 five are playing, within an hour the ante-man 
 will have put up twenty chips. If he plays 
 three hours, he has offered up sixty chips. If 
 he has made his blind good, that would be one 
 hundred and twenty chij)s. The chances would 
 be, that as age he held originally some fair hands. 
 The probabilities, if given all in his favor, would 
 be when he won with some of his hands. But 
 calculating all to his advantage, it is quite cer- 
 tain that if he comes in with a small pair he 
 will lose in the three hours ninety chips. To 
 have the age and to bluff with a small pair is 
 very great folly, and this adds to ruin. 
 
 For the age to raise induces the players to 
 believe that there is a bluff in the air, and it 
 
104 POKEit. 
 
 looks^ from a study of the game^ as if the age 
 were more constantly called than any other 
 hand. 
 
 The dangers of the age cannot be too much 
 expatiated upon. It is the finest and the worst 
 position at the same time. Steady^ experienced 
 players^ when more than one come in, often 
 make it a rule to abandon their chip if they hold 
 a pair lower than tens. C, if he knows what he 
 is about, will never come in first with less than 
 tens ; and D ought to have even better. The 
 percentage against C^s winning then is very 
 great. 
 
 '^^All in the draw.^^ When a person who 
 holds the age believes in that, it is ruin. Sup- 
 pose you do go in with two nines, and draw a 
 third, making three nines. The chances are 
 just as good for another player to have taken in 
 another ten, or another jack, queen, king, or 
 ace, and then you are beaten. You started too 
 low, and your improvement is only so much the 
 worse for you. It requires no explanation to 
 understand that your adversary's two pairs, made 
 during the draw, Avith their jacks up, are better 
 than yours, with tens up. 
 
 To straddle is a weakness. It confers no pos- 
 sible benefit. You assume for the moment the 
 apparent advantages of the age, and then when 
 you want this advantage the most — that is, to 
 
POKER. 105 
 
 bet last — 3'oii have^ according to the rule^ to 
 give it up. You have simply doubled the ante. 
 This may or may not intimidate the rest of the 
 players. It ought never to frighten out the 
 age if he has a pair. The age^ if he has a sin- 
 gle pair^ will see the straddle, with good chances 
 of winning. The person who straddles often 
 forgets that the active condition of the game is 
 something entirely different from the passive 
 one. 
 
 Entrance into the game by the last player, A 
 the dealer, when C, D, and E are in, unless he 
 has a good pair, is folly. 
 
 When players meet frequently, they all know 
 that a wild player, if there is such a one among 
 them, is certain to lose in the long run. Steady 
 play — conservative poker — is absolutely sure to 
 worst him. He may have occasional flights of 
 luck, and draw ^'^ a tan-yard from a shoe-string '' ; 
 but that kind of thing does not last long. He 
 may win largely once in awhile, and all the rest 
 of the time lose quite as largely. 
 
 It may be denied, but experienced players 
 rarely enter without a pair of jacks or better. 
 It is even under exceptional circumstances that 
 they draw for a straight or a flush. At the 
 first to go in, after the blind, they let the 
 straights and flushes severely alone. If they 
 have the age they will draw on straights and 
 
106 POKER. 
 
 flushes and may or may not raise. If there are 
 many players, then old players take their chance 
 with a flush or straight to draw to. 
 
 With all these explanations for playing^ 
 founded on common-sense principles, there are 
 numerous exceptions. These exceptions do not 
 arise from the laws of chance, but have to do 
 with the idiosyncrasies of the players. Most of 
 the money lost at poker comes from seeing. 
 Curiosity is fatal. All the money saved arises 
 from want of curiosity. Still, take the player 
 who has won twice hand running, his hand hav- 
 ing been called, if he makes a high bet a third 
 time with a new hand, there are many chances 
 that he is bluffing. It is not likely that he will 
 have three times consecutively the best cards. 
 
 Whether to draw for a straight or a flush de- 
 pends not only on position but how many cards 
 your adversaries take. If you see the blind, and 
 have, say, four hearts, or four clubs, spades, or 
 diamonds, your four cards ending with a queen, 
 king, or ace, and the other card being a queen, 
 king, or ace, you have a pair. Are you to re- 
 tain a pair or draw for a flush ? If the majority 
 of those before you draw one card, they may also 
 be drawing to a flush or straight, but at the 
 same time they may have two pairs or threes. If 
 the majority of the adversaries draw one card, 
 what should you do? We would not advise 
 
POKER. 107 
 
 throwing away the queens, but to draw three 
 cards. If you make two pairs or three queens, 
 your hand is above the average. But we would 
 throw away a pair of tens. Having a straight 
 to make, the same plan is recommended. If 
 the flush is made, or the straight, of course the 
 advantages of this hand are immense. The 
 temptation to raise on a straight to be made or 
 a flush to be made is very great, as it is likewise 
 for players having the making of these two com- 
 binations to see the raises. They look, when 
 one card is drawn, like two pairs or threes in 
 hand. The player raising on a flush or straight 
 in the future is bound to bet on it, and mostly 
 wins, providing other players have only two 
 small pairs. It is here that the bluff must be 
 pushed home. 
 
 How to draw on threes, whether by taking 
 two cards or by dispensing with their presence, 
 asking for one card is only a question of ex- 
 pediency. Poker, in order to be well played, 
 must be ever changing in its methods. Deceit 
 is the constant element. It is quite unlikely 
 that when C is raised by D, and that C only 
 takes two cards, that he has not a honaficle trip- 
 let. If you have raised on two pairs, you had 
 better treat the matter mildly, and if he raises, 
 go out. Even four of a kind may be disguised 
 by the drawing of one card, or by standing pat. 
 
108 POKER. 
 
 In fact^ whether there is aii5^thing in a hand or 
 not, can never be known until it is called ; with 
 threes, is it then better to draw two cards or one ? 
 If two cards were drawn, the chances of making 
 a four are possible ; but at the same time, the 
 value of the hand is given away to the players. 
 The probabilities of having fours are 4,164 to 
 1 ; of a full, 693 to 1. Many players having 
 threes, discard, invariably, the lowest card. 
 They believe that the higher cards have been 
 retained by the other hands coming in. The 
 only thing in regard to the discard of the lowest 
 card is, that once begun it must always be 
 continued. 
 
 Theoretically, calculations as to what should 
 happen with cards do not avail against what 
 actually does take place. Luck is a perverse 
 jade, and refuses to be bridled. In theory, in 
 10,900 games of poker there ought to occur at 
 least fours ten times. In an actual game, fours 
 never came out but once, and yet at one sitting, 
 on three occasions fours have appeared and dur- 
 ing the same time two straight flushes. More 
 straights per contra by fifty per cent, were dealt 
 in an actual game than should have been theo- 
 retically present. There were sixty dealt, while 
 there should have been but forty, according to 
 the books. Strangely enough, the threes tallied 
 "with the theory, and in two pairs and single 
 
POKER. 109 
 
 pairs the players and the theorists Avere wonder- 
 fully close. 
 
 A player ought in a certain way to equalize 
 his chances^ and do the same thing over and over 
 again. This equalization of his chances^ and 
 the advantages of it^ may not be apparent dur- 
 ing one game^ but only during a series of games. 
 Win to-day, lose to-morrow, is the maxim. It 
 is not the cards that change, it is human nature. 
 
 When a player takes but one card, it is a rule 
 among conservative players to see his bet, if they 
 have a good hand, but not to raise him. This 
 rule is applied when only two are in. Two fulls 
 may meet each other in this dull way. But it is 
 foreign to the game of poker, and belongs to 
 the automatic way of playing. 
 
 It is impossible to estimate the value of a 
 hand. The heaviest losses may be made on four 
 kings. Jfever think how much you may win on 
 a good hand, but how much you can lose. There 
 is no such thing as cowardice at poker. A player 
 has stood on a pat, ace, king, flush, and, raising, 
 seen without raising another flush which had 
 drawn on four cards, with an ace, king, queen, 
 flush, and thereby the holder of the pat hand 
 saved innumerable chips — it having cost him no 
 more than if he had had two pairs, ace high. 
 Those who pity '"^your poor play^^ are by no 
 means willing to share your risks. 
 
110 POKER. 
 
 Jack-pots have very mucli changed the char- 
 acter of the game, and in one respect to its 
 detriment. On the other hand, it has equalized 
 poker. It is really at best but a show of hands. 
 A great deal depends in jack-pot on the char- 
 acter of the game, whether it is a high or a 
 low one. Among conservative players, the first 
 player, C, will not open on jacks ; the risk is 
 too great. If all pass to the dealer, he is safe 
 to open on jacks. Some players will never open 
 themselves or come in afterward without two 
 good pairs, at the lowest kings up, or threes. 
 
 The losses at jack-pot, where the limit is 
 reached every time, are heavier, it should be 
 remembered, than at any other period during 
 the game. Bluffing in the play of jack-pot 
 should be eschewed — nothing is more dangerous. 
 The chances are, that starting in with good 
 hands, the bluff will be seen. A conservative 
 player is never tempted in a jack-pot, with a 
 flush or straight to be drawn to. To raise the 
 opener of a jack-pot requires a good hand. If 
 the player after the opener raises, and the opener 
 raises in his turn, do nothing more than call, 
 unless a superlative hand is there. 
 
 A trick in the jack-pot, when all have passed 
 up to E and E opens, is for A, the last to come 
 in, to raise him. All the others are weak, hav- 
 ing passed out once, and it is likely that E will 
 
POKER. Ill 
 
 drop. But this is, like all things in poker, un- 
 certain. 
 
 In all these hints as to playing poker, the sup- 
 position is, that there is a limit. In fact, this 
 treatise on poker is written only for those who 
 play with a limit. To play poker without a limit 
 is ruin. The game without a limit brings to the 
 front all the rascals. It is a temptation to fraud. 
 
 It is rather difficult to state what shall be the 
 limit. Penny-ante, with a limit of 20 cents, 
 suffices for all amusement. The losses may he 
 $5 ; with a $1 limit, $10 ; with a 12 limit, $75 ; 
 with a $5 limit, $250. It is the limit which 
 largely increases the losses. A player may lose 
 $5 and go to bed happy. But with a loss of 
 $250, it is pretty certain that the player does not 
 sleep sweetly. A heavy game is destructive of 
 poker. No purse is big enough to stand it. In 
 fact, harmless as is poker when played with 
 reason, when unreasonably indulged in it ends 
 with desolation and dishonor. 
 
 PLAYING THE PAT HAND. 
 
 ^''Little better than played the jack with us^ 
 
 Tempest. Act IV. ^ Scene 1st, 
 
 The pat hand means a hand which is played 
 without having recourse to the draw. It may 
 contain anything, from cards of no value up to 
 t^^traight flush. There are all possibilities in a 
 
112 POKEK. 
 
 pat hand. Sometimes a player will raise on a 
 pat hand according to position, and when called 
 may exhibit two poor or two good pairs, or threes. 
 He has played a mongrel pat. He had something 
 and wanted to make his hand appear stronger 
 than it really was. Such a hand containing two 
 small pairs or three deuces, if started by a raise 
 and backed up by a bluff, might make a better 
 hand of threes, or a very low straight, take 
 water. 
 
 Where poker is played according to the spirit 
 of the game, it is pretty certain that one eighth 
 of the pat hands are bogus ; because they are 
 made to appear more frequently than the laws 
 of chance permit. It is a very puzzling play to 
 face with success. A good player, however, 
 often employs it. When in the draw the first 
 player who comes in refuses any fresh cards, it 
 looks as if he really had pat a ready-made hand. 
 When several are in, and bet a single chip, 
 showing little strength, the final raise on the pat 
 hand, which has nothing, generally takes the pot. 
 
 When a real pat hand, which has a straight, 
 flush, full, fours, or a straight flush comes to a 
 player, the holding of either of them often in- 
 duces an overestimation of their values. The 
 straight may begin with an ace and end with a 
 five, then it is the lowest ; or it may be a flush 
 with only ten high, or a full of deuces. The 
 
POKER. 113 
 
 better it is^ the more you may count on its win- 
 ning ; but never lose your head over a pat hand. 
 Nothing is invincible in poker but a straight 
 flush, ace high. 
 
 With a ionafide pat in hand, having position, 
 and raising, watch out for those drawing one 
 card, if, after your final raise, they raise back on 
 you. If your straight is low, or your flush is 
 low, or your full is low, you might be then very 
 expensively beaten. 
 
 The pat hand with nothing in it, is, among 
 good players, a very likely bluff. If it wins it is 
 always shown by them. Then a reputation for 
 bluffing is gained by the player, which is exactly 
 w^hat he has been trying to establish. 
 
 It is, of course, impossible with a simulated 
 pat hand not to bet on it. The least timidity 
 exposes it. That would be like a battery having 
 a heavy gun letting off' a squib. Occasionally a 
 wheedling bet, however, as if the player implored 
 the others to see him, wins the pot. The other 
 players think it a tempting lure, and say, ^^No, 
 I thank you ! ^^ and are taken in. 
 
 PUSHING YOUR LUCK. 
 
 *' Pray you, come in.'''' 
 
 Othello. Act III., Scene 1st. 
 
 What is called ^^ pushing your luck '' at poker 
 is often expatiated upon. ^^ All in the draw^^ "^s 
 
114 POKER, 
 
 frequently repeated. There are certain series 
 which do appear m certain games. In poker 
 there is only one which you can take advantage 
 of. The player who holds most frequently two 
 pairs will win. It is not the single immense 
 pots which help the pile of chips, but the bulk 
 of the small ones. Sometimes a player for hours 
 will never hold a single pair higher than fives. 
 Then he must learn patience and stay out. Then 
 may come the picture-card periods and the 
 threes. It is then wise under certain circum- 
 stances to play them for what they are worth. 
 But ''^ to push your luck/^ as many poker players 
 understand it, is to come in with nothing, and 
 trust to chance to improve. This always depletes 
 a player. 
 
 Steadiness in play often makes up for losses. 
 It is not a great hand that makes a player square 
 or ahead, but often a moderate hand, so that it 
 comes in at the right time. Threes win more 
 than fulls. Bide your time, is the best rule. 
 Show no impatience. Eemember that there is 
 equalization of chances. When losing, beware of 
 making the straddle. To straddle is to force 
 your luck. Be more observant than ever. 
 Watch, when you are going ^^to the bad,^^ who 
 has won or who has lost. The winners may show 
 greed or covetousness. Try and appreciate the 
 differences in their methods of playing. 
 
POKER. 115 
 
 To cut short your losses can be done only in 
 one way. This is a term frequently used, and 
 its application is not well understood. It means 
 simply this : You are willing to lose $5 ; lose 
 that and not another cent. That is '''^cutting 
 short your losses.^" '^^Let your profits go on/^ 
 means that you can keep on as long as you are 
 winning. There is a great deal of selfishness 
 about poker. 
 
 QUESTIONS AT POKER. 
 
 " Vd have it come to qtiestion.^'' 
 
 King Lear. Act I.^ Scene 3d. 
 
 Every player, including the dealer, must an- 
 nounce how many cards he wants in tones loud 
 enough to be heard by all. If the dealer does 
 not take any cards, he must announce that he 
 stands pat. This should be insisted upon. The 
 dealer might hold a bona fide pat hand, and 
 saying nothing, disguise the strength of his 
 cards. 
 
 The indication made by a sign, as of thumping 
 on the table when no cards are taken, if alone 
 used is out of order. No pantomime is permis- 
 sible in poker. A player may thump all he 
 pleases, but must also say, ^' I do not want any 
 cards. ''^ The thump may be misinterpreted, for 
 
116 POKER. 
 
 it is often used with a less degree of force^ when 
 players pass out. 
 
 It occasionally happens that a player's atten- 
 tion is unavoidably withdrawn for a moment 
 during the draw^ and he does not see or hear 
 how many cards an opponent takes. This gives 
 rise to one of the most disputed questions in 
 poker. Is the dealer^ upon being asked the 
 question how many cards any player drew^ bound 
 to answer or not ? Some players insist that 
 he is not bound to and should not answer. 
 Still every player has an equal right to know 
 how many cards another drew. If four players 
 of five in a game know how many cards a 
 certain person drew^ and the fifth player does 
 not know, the four players have an advantage 
 over the fifth. 
 
 The latest decision is that the dealer must 
 answer if the question is put before a bet is 
 made. 
 
 TABLE STAKES. 
 
 " I must have leave to pass.'*'' 
 
 Conolanus. Act V. , Scene M. 
 
 By table stakes, or playing table stakes, a 
 person who bets must have the money before 
 him. It prevents any credit. You cannot owe 
 when ^^ table stakes '' are played, nor can you be 
 
POKER. 117 
 
 raised out for more chips or money than yon 
 have before you ; as far as reducing credit to a 
 minimum^ it is useful. 
 
 In olden times, when table stakes were played, 
 it was emploj^ed as a device to drive out another 
 player. If he had not the chips or money, he 
 left. He had, however, one recourse. He might 
 declare his ability to raise the money. Then the 
 game was closed for the time being, and the 
 hands sealed up for twelve hours. Then if he 
 showed up with the money the game was 
 continued. 
 
 THE FREEZE-OUT„ 
 
 " I pray you, pass with your best 'violence.''^ 
 
 Hamlet. Act F., Scene 2d. 
 
 The freeze-out is so called because when it is 
 played all the performers are left out in the cold, 
 with the exception of one. It is a duel at cards. 
 In a certain way it has its advantages, because it 
 limits individual losses. The players each take 
 the same number of chips, and the game closes 
 when one player has won them all. For example, 
 five players . each take twenty chips. There are 
 one hundred chips out. The freeze-out is ended 
 when one of the party has the one hundred 
 chips. The game is carried on under all the 
 rules of poker, with, however, this exception. 
 
118 POKER. 
 
 and that is in regard to the limit, for it never 
 should be played without the limit. Say the 
 limit is ten, one player or more is reduced to 
 his last five chips. The player having the bulk 
 of chips cannot then insist on the limit, he can 
 only bet as many chips as his adversaries have. 
 The freeze-out is not precisely a social game, 
 because necessarily the players drop out one by 
 one. At the conclusion of the game it is obvious 
 that great caution is necessary. The last chips 
 are carefully nursed. Jack-pots are not generally 
 played in a freeze-out, but this is optional. 
 
 THE WIDOW, OR KITTY„ 
 
 '* If this be worth your hearing^ mark ity 
 
 Cymbeline. Act /., Scene 1st. 
 
 By the widow, or as it is more commonly 
 known as ^^kitty,^^ is meant a percentage, taken 
 in chips at certain occasions during the game of 
 poker. This percentage may be put to the 
 account of the club where the game is being 
 played, and defrays the cost of cards, use of 
 chips, gas, attendance, etc. The kitty may, 
 however, be introduced when no expenses occur. 
 When threes or better are made on a called 
 hand, or when jack-pots are played, one chip is 
 taken from the pool and put aside. These chips 
 amount to quite a number at the end of the 
 
POKER. 119 
 
 game. Then they may be either divided among 
 the players or made into jack-pots, as a consola- 
 tion stake, and so wind up the game. 
 
 BUCK. 
 
 ' * A further er in the act.'''' 
 
 Tempest. Act F., Scene 1st. 
 
 Originally the buck was a pocket-knife passing 
 always to the left, indicating only the deal. 
 Perhaps from the handle of the knife being of 
 buckhorn the term is derived. By a process of 
 evolution, the buck in poker is made sometimes 
 a representative of value, and can be put up by 
 the age. It may designate a certain number of 
 chips, say, for instance, five. Then, if the age 
 makes his blind good, he puts up five more chips. 
 The rest of the players, when they come in, do 
 the same thing. The person who wins it, when 
 he is the age puts up the buck. When the 
 game is over, the person who has issued the buck 
 redeems it^ at the value he put on it. 
 
 In some cases the buck is used in order to 
 induce the jack-pot, of course by prior agree- 
 ment. Whoever has the buck, when he deals 
 puts it on the table with tw^o or more chips, and 
 then all contribute to making a jack-pot. Who- 
 ever w^ins the jack-pot, when it is his turn to 
 deal puts it up, and another jack-pot is in order. 
 
120 POKEii. 
 
 Too many jack-pots in a game, or forced con- 
 tributions^ destroy the character of poker. They 
 come in sufficient frequency under ordinary 
 circumstances. 
 
 A knife is not an obligatory buck. In the Far 
 West a revolver on the table sometimes serves 
 the purpose of a buck. 
 
POKER PRINCIPLES AND CHANCE LAWS. 
 
 BY RICHARD A. PROCTOR. 
 
 '' Think what a chance thou changest on.'''' 
 
 Cymbeline. Act /., Scene 5th. 
 
 Let us consider briefly what are the chances 
 for each different kind of hand at poker. 
 
 First, the total number of ways in which a set 
 of five cards can be formed out of a pack con- 
 taining 52 cards has to be determined. This is 
 easy enough. You multiply together 52, 51^ 50, 
 49, and 48, and divide the product by that 
 obtained from multiplying together 1, 2, 3, 4, and 
 5. You thus get 2,598,960 as the total number 
 of poker hands. 
 
 It is very easy to determine the number of 
 flushes and sequences and flush sequences which 
 are possible. 
 
 Thus, begin with the flush sequences. We 
 can have in each suit, ace, 2, 3, 4, 5 ; 2, 3, 4, 5, 
 6 ; 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ; and so on up to 10, knave, 
 queen, king, ace ; or in all there are ten flush 
 sequences in each suit, forty flush sequences in 
 all. 
 
122 POKER. 
 
 The iiumTDer of sequences which are not flush 
 may be thus determined. The arrangement of 
 numbers may be any one of the ten just indi- 
 cated. But taking any one of these, as 3, 4, 5, 
 G, 7, the three may be of any suit out of the 
 four ; so that each arrangement may be obtained 
 in four different ways as respects the first card ; 
 so with the second, third, etc. ; or in all 4 times 
 4 times 4 times 4 times 4, or 1,024, four of which 
 only will be flushes. Thus there are 1,020 times 
 10, or 10,200 sequences which are not flush. 
 
 Now as respects flushes their number is very 
 easily determined. The number of combinations 
 of five cards which can be formed out of the 13 
 cards of a suit are given by multiplying together 
 13, 12, 11, 10, and 9, and dividing by the prod- 
 uct of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ; this will be found to be 
 1,287. Thus there are 4 times 1,287, or 5,148 
 possible flushes. Of these, 5,108 are not sequence 
 flushes. 
 
 The total number of '^'^four^^ hands may be 
 considered next. The process for finding it is 
 very simple. There are of course only 13 fours, 
 each of which can be taken with any one of the 
 remaining 48 cards ; so that there are 13 times 
 48, or 624 possible four hands. 
 
 Next to determine the number of ^^full 
 hands. ^' This is not difficult, but requires a 
 little more attention. A full hand consists of a 
 
POKEB. 123 
 
 triplet and a pair. Now manifestly there are 
 four triplets of each kind — four sets of three 
 aces^ four of three kings, and so forth (for we 
 may take each ace from the four aces in succes- 
 sion^ leaving in each case a different triplet of 
 aces ; and so with the other denominations). 
 Thus, in all, 4 times 13, or 52 different triplets 
 can be formed out of the pack of 52 cards. 
 When one of these triplets has been formed 
 there remain 49 cards, out of which the total 
 number of sets of two which can be formed 
 is obtained by multiplying 49 by 48 and divid- 
 ing by 2 ; whence we get 1,176 such combi- 
 nations in all. But the total number of pairs 
 which can be formed from among these 49 cards 
 is much smaller. There are four twos, which 
 (as cribbage teaches us) will give six pairs of 
 twos ; so there are six pairs of threes, six pairs 
 of fours, and so on ; or as there are only twelve 
 possible kinds of pairs (after our triplet removed), 
 there are in all 6 times 12, that is 72, possible 
 pairs which can with the triplet form a full 
 hand. Hence, as there are 52 possible triplets, 
 the total number of full hands is 52 times 72, or 
 3,744. 
 
 The number of triplet hands which are not 
 also fours or fulls (for every four hand contains 
 triplets) follows at once from the above. There 
 are 52 possible triplets, each of which can be 
 
124 POKER. 
 
 combined with 1^176 combinations of two cards 
 out of the remaining 49^ giving in all 52 times 
 1,176^ or 61^152 sets of five^ three at least of 
 which are alike. But there are 624 four hands, 
 each of which is not only a triplet hand^ but will 
 manifestly make four of the triplet hands our 
 gross reckoning includes (for from every four 
 you can make three triplets)^ and there are 3^,744 
 full hands. These (to wit^ 4,496 fours, and 
 5,744 fulls, or 6,240 hands in all) must be re- 
 moyed from our count, leaving 54,912 triplet 
 hands (proper) in all. 
 
 This last result might have been obtained 
 another way, which (as I shall nse it for count- 
 ing pair hands) I may as well indicate here. 
 Taking any triplet of the 52, there remain 49 
 cards, one of which is of the same denomination 
 as the triplet. Eemoving this, there are left 48 
 cards, out of which the number of sets of two 
 which can be formed is obtained by multipljdng 
 48 by 47 and dividing by 2 ; it is, therefore, 1,128, 
 and among these 72 are pairs. There remain 
 then 1,056 sets of two, any one of which can be 
 combined with each of 52 triplets to give a 
 triplet hand pure and simple. Thus, in all, 
 there are 52 times 1,056 triplet hands, or 54,012, 
 as before. 
 
 Next for double and single pairs. 
 
 From the whole pack of 52 cards we can form 
 
POKER. 125 
 
 6 times 13 pairs ; for 6 aces can be formed, 6 
 pairs of twos, 6 pairs of threes, and so forth. 
 Thus there are in all 78 different pairs. When 
 we have taken out any pair, there remain 50 
 cards. From these we must remove the two 
 cards of the same denomination, as either or both 
 of these must not appear in the hand to be 
 formed. There remain 48 cards, from which we 
 can form 72 other pairs. Each of these can be 
 taken with any one of the 46 remaining cards, 
 except with those two which are of the same 
 denomination, or with 44 in all, without forming 
 a triplet. Each of these combinations can be 
 taken with each of the 78 pairs, giving a two- 
 pair hand, only it is obvious that each two-pair 
 hand will be given twice by this arrangement. 
 Thus the total number of two-pair hands is half 
 of 78 times 72 times 44, or there are 123,552 
 such hands in all. 
 
 ISText as to simple pairs. We get, as before, 
 78 different pairs. Each of these can be taken 
 with any set of three formed out of the 48 cards 
 left when the other 2 of the same denomination 
 have been removed, except the 72 times 44 (that 
 is 3,168) pairs indicated in dealing with the last 
 case, and the 48 triplets which can be formed 
 out of these same 48 cards, or 3,216 sets in all. 
 Now the total number of sets of three cards 
 which can be formed out of 48 is given by multi- 
 
126 
 
 POKER. 
 
 plying 48 by 47 by 46, and dividing by the prod- 
 uct of the numbers 1, 2, and 3. It is found to 
 be 17,296. We diminish this by 3,216, getting 
 14,082, and find that there are in all 78 times 
 14,082 or 1,098,240. 
 
 The hands which remain are those which are 
 to be estimated by the highest card in them ; 
 and their number will of course be obtained by 
 subtracting the sum of the numbers already 
 obtained from the total number of possible hands. 
 We thus obtain the number 1,302,540, 
 
 Thus of the four best classes of hands, there 
 are the following numbers : 
 
 Of flush sequences there 
 
 * may 
 
 be . 
 
 40 
 
 ^^ four 
 
 634 
 
 '' full hands 
 
 
 
 3,744 
 
 ^^ common flushes 
 
 
 
 5,108 
 
 ^^ common sequences 
 
 
 
 10,200. 
 
 '^ triplets . 
 
 
 
 54,912 
 
 '' two pairs » 
 
 
 
 123,552 
 
 '^ pairs 
 
 
 
 1,098,340 
 
 ^^ other hands 
 
 
 
 1,303,540 
 
 Total number of possible hands 
 
 T 1 '11 1 1 t 1 11 IT 
 
 ■ ^ 3,598,960 
 
 1 J 1 1 
 
 It will be seen that those who devised the rules 
 for poker play set the different hands in very 
 proper order. It is fitting, for instance, that as 
 
POKER. 127 
 
 there are only 40 possible flush sequence hands 
 out of a total number of 2^598^960 hands^ while 
 there are 624 ^^four^^ hands^ the flush sequences 
 should come first, and so with the rest. It is 
 noteworthy, however, that when sequences were 
 not counted, as was the rule in former times, 
 there was one hand absolutely unique and un- 
 conquerable. The holder of four aces then 
 wagered on a certainty, for no one else could 
 hold that hand. At present there is no abso- 
 lutely sure winning hand. The hold of ace, king, 
 queen, knave, ten, flush may (though it is of 
 course exceedingly unlikely) be met by the holder 
 of the same cards, flush, in another suit. Or when 
 we remember that at whist it lias happened that 
 the deal divided the four suits among the four 
 players, to each a complete suit, we see that 
 four players at poker might each receive a flush 
 sequence headed by the ace. Thus the use of 
 sequences has saved poker players from the pos- 
 sible risk of having either to stand out or wager 
 on a certainty, which last would of course be very 
 painful to the feelings of a professional gambler. 
 We might subdivide the hands above classified 
 into a much longer array, beginning thus : 4 
 flush sequences headed by ace ; 4 headed by 
 king, and so on down to 4 headed by five ; 48 
 possible four-aces hands ; 48 four-kings hands ; 
 and so on down to 48 four-twos hands ; 24 possi- 
 
128 POKER. 
 
 ble '' fulls ^' of 3 aces and 2 kings; as many 
 of 3 aces and 2 queens ; and so on down to 24 
 ^^ fulls ^^ of 3 twos and 2 threes^ and so on. 
 Any one who cares to do this can, by drawing the 
 line at any hand, ascertain at once the number 
 of hands above and not above that hand in 
 value!; and thus determine the chance that any 
 hand taken at random is above or below that 
 particular hand in value. The comparatively 
 simple table above only sliows how many hands 
 there are above or not above pairs, triplets, and 
 the like. But the more complete series could 
 be very easily formed. 
 
 We note from the above table that more than 
 half the possible poker hands are below pairs in 
 value. So that Clay was right enough in wagering 
 on an ace-high hand, seeing that there are more 
 hands which will not beat it (supposing the high- 
 est next card a king, at any rate) than there are 
 hands that will ; but he was quite wrong in calling 
 on such a hand, even against a single opponent. 
 
 The effect of increase in the number of hands 
 can also readily be determined. Many, even 
 among gamblers, know so little of the doctrine 
 of chances as not to be aware of, still less to be 
 able to measure the effect of, the presence of a 
 great number of other contestants. Yet it is 
 easy to illustrate the matter. 
 
 Thus^ suppose a player casts a die single 
 
POKER. 129 
 
 against one other. If the first has cast four, the 
 odds are in favor of his not being beaten ; for 
 there are only two casts which ivill beat him 
 and four which will not. The chance that he 
 will not be beaten by a single opponent is thus 
 f or f. If there is another opponent, the 
 chance that he individually will not cast better 
 than 4 is also f . But the chance that neither 
 will throw better than 4 is obtained by multiply- 
 ing I by |, It is therefore f ; or the odds 
 are 5 to 4 in favor of one or other beating the 
 cast of the first thrower. If there are three 
 others, in like manner the chance that not one 
 of the three will throw better than 4 is obtained 
 by multiplying f by | by f . It is, therefore, 
 2^ ; or the odds are 19 to 8 in favor of 
 the first thrower's cast of four being beaten. 
 And so with every increase in the number of 
 other throwers, the chance of the first thrower's 
 cast being beaten is increased. So that if the 
 first thrower casts 4, and is offered his share of 
 the stakes before the next throw is made, the 
 offer is a bad one if there is* but one opponent, a 
 good one if there are two, and a very good one 
 if there are more than two. 
 
 In like manner, the same hand which it would 
 be safe to stand on (as a rule) at poker against 
 two or three opponents may be a very unsafe hand 
 to stand on against five or six. 
 
130 POKER. 
 
 Then the player has to consider the pretty 
 chance-problems involved in drawing. 
 
 Suppose^ for instance^ your original hand con- 
 tains a pair — the other three cards being all 
 unlike ; should you stand out ? or should you 
 draw ? (to purchase right to which you must 
 stand in) ; or should you stand in without draw- 
 ing? Again^ if you draw^, how many of the 
 three loose cards should you throw out ? and 
 what are your chances of improving your hand ? 
 
 Here you have to consider first whether you 
 will stand in^ which depends not on the value of 
 your pair only, but also on the chance that your 
 hand will be improved by drawing. Having 
 decided to stand in^ remember that discarding 
 three tells the rest of the company that in all 
 probability you are drawing to improve a pair 
 hand ; and at poker^ telling anything helps the 
 enemy. If one of your loose cards is an ace^ 
 you do well to discard only the other two ; for this 
 looks like drawing to a triplet, and you may 
 chance to draw a pair to your ace. But usually 
 you have so much better chance of improving 
 your hand by drawing three, that it is, as a rule, 
 better to do this. 
 
 Drawing to a triplet is usually good policy. 
 ^' Your mathematical expectation of improve- 
 ment is slight, ^^ says one work on the subject, 
 ^^ being 1 to 33 of a fourth card '' (it should be 
 
POKER. 131 
 
 the fourth card) '^ of the same denomination^ and 
 3 to 23 of another pair of denomination different 
 from the triplet/^ a remark suggesting the com- 
 ment that to obtain a pair of the same denomina- 
 tion as the triplet would require play something 
 like what we hear of in old Mississippi stories^ 
 where a '^'^ straight flush ^^ would be met by a 
 very full pair of hands^ to wit^ five in one hand 
 and a revolver in the other ! The total expecta- 
 tion of improvement is 1 to 8 ; but then see 
 what an impression you make by a draw which 
 means a good hand. Then^ too^ you may sug- 
 gest a yet better hand^ without much impairing 
 your chance of improvement^ by drawing one 
 card only. This gives you one chance in 47 of 
 making fours^ and one in 16 of picking up one 
 of the three cards of the same denomination as 
 the odd cards you retain. This is a chance of 
 one in 12. 
 
 '' Draws to straights and flushes are usually 
 dearly purchased/'' says our oracle ; ^^ always so 
 at a small table. Their value increases directly 
 as the number of players. ^^ (The word ^'^ directly ^^ 
 is here incorrectly used ; the value increases as 
 the number of players^ but not directly as the 
 number.) Of course in drawing to a two-ended 
 straight — that is, one which does not begin or end 
 with an ace — the chance of success is represented 
 by 8 in 47, for there are 47 cards outside your 
 
133 POKER. 
 
 original hand^ of which only eight are good to 
 complete the straight. For a one-end straight 
 the chance is but 4 in 47. With a small chance^ 
 too, of improving your hand, you are trying for 
 a hand better than you want in any but a large 
 company. '^^If^you play in a large joarty/^ says 
 one authority, ^^say seven or eight, and find 
 occasion to draw for a straight against six 
 players, do so by all means, even if you split 
 a^es.^^ The advice is sound. Under the cir- 
 cumstances you need a better hand than ace- 
 pair to give you your fair sixth share of the 
 chances. 
 
 As to flushes your chances are better, when 
 you have already four of a suit. You discard 
 one, and out of the remaining 47 cards any one 
 of nine will make your flush for you. Your 
 chance is 1 in 5|. In dealing with this point 
 our oracle goes altogether wrong, and adopts a 
 principle so inconsistent with the doctrine of 
 probabilities as to show that, though he knows 
 much more than Steinmetz, he still labors under 
 somewhat similar illusions. ^'^ Theoretically,^^ 
 says he, ^^the result just obtained is absolutely 
 true ; but I have experimented with six hands 
 through a succession of 500 deals, and filled 
 only 83 flushes in the 500, equal to one in six 
 and one-twentieth draws. Of course I am not 
 prepared to say that this would be the average 
 
POKER. 133 
 
 in many thousand deals ; theoretically it is an 
 untrue result ; but I here suggest a possible ex- 
 planation of what I confess is to me a mystery/^ 
 Then he expounds the very matter on which we 
 touched aboYC. '' In casting dice/'' he says^ 
 '' theoretically , any given throw has no influence 
 upon the next throw, and is not influenced by 
 the previous throw. Yet if you throw a die and 
 it turns up six, while the chances are theoreti- 
 cally one to six ^' (one in six it should be) '^ that 
 the next throw will produce a six because the 
 previous throw of six lies absolutely in the past, 
 yet you may safely bet something more than the 
 usual odds against it. Then suppose the second 
 throw turns up a six, that throw also now lies in 
 the past, and cannot be proved to have an influ- 
 ence upon throw number three, which you are 
 preparing to make. If any material influence 
 is suspected, you may change the box and die ; 
 and you may now bet twice the usual odds 
 against the six. Why ? Because you know by 
 experience that it is extremely difficult to throw 
 six three times in succession, even if you do not 
 know the precise odds against it. Granted, cer- 
 tain odds against throwing six twice in succes- 
 sion, etc., yet at any given moment when the 
 player shakes the box in which is a six-faced 
 die, he has one chance in six of throwing a six ; 
 and yet if he has just thrown sixes twice, you 
 
134 POKER. 
 
 may bet twelve to one that he will not throw a 
 six in that particular cast/^ If I did not hold 
 gambling to be near akin to swindling, and 
 could find but a few hundred who held this doc- 
 trine, how much money might I not gain by ac- 
 cepting any number of wagers of this wise sort ! 
 
 The fact is, the mistake here is just the ridicu- 
 lous mistake which Steinmetz called ^'^the 
 maturity of the chances '^ over again. It is a 
 mistake which has misled to their ruin many 
 thousands of gamblers, who might have escaped 
 the evil influence of that other equally foolish 
 mistake about being lucky or unlucky, in the 
 vein or out of it. Steinmetz j)uts the matter 
 thus : ^"^ In a game of chance, the oftener the 
 same combination has occurred in succession, 
 the nearer are we to the certainty that it will 
 not recur at the next cast or turn-up : this is the 
 most elementary of the theories on probabili- 
 ties ; it is termed the maturity of the chances.^'' 
 The real fact being that this is not a theory of 
 probabilities at all, but disproved by the theory 
 of probabilities, and disproved, whenever it has 
 been put to the test, by facts. 
 
 Take the case considered in ^' The Complete 
 Poker Player, ^^ and note the evidence on the 
 strength of which the author of that work re- 
 jects the theory in favor of a practical common- 
 sense notion (as he thinks), which is, in reality, 
 
POKEE. 135 
 
 nonsense. You may expect 9 snccessful draws 
 to a flush in 47 hands ; therefore in the 500 deals 
 he experimented upon, he might have expected 
 95 or 96 ; and he only obtained 83. Now 500 
 trials are far too few to test such a matter as 
 this. You can hardly test eyen the tossing of a 
 coin properly by fewer than a thousand trials ; 
 and in that case there are but 2 possible events. 
 Here there are 47, of which 9 are fayorable. It 
 is the failure to recognize this which led the 
 Astronomer Royal for Scotland to recognize 
 something mystical and significant in the pre- 
 ponderance of threes and the deficiency of sevens 
 among the digits rej)resenting the proportion of 
 the circumference to the diameter of a circle. 
 In casting a coin a great number of times we 
 do not find that the occurrence of a great number 
 of successive heads or tails in any way affects 
 the average proportion of heads or tails coming 
 next after the series. Thus I have before me 
 the record of a series of 16^317 tossings^ in which 
 the number of sequences of tails (only) were 
 rendered; and I find that after 271 cases^ in 
 which tails had been tossed 5 times in succes- 
 sion^ the next tossing gave in 132 cases heads^ 
 and in 139 cases tails. Among the 16,317 toss- 
 ings^ two cases occurred in which tail was tossed 
 15 times in succession, which, as it happens, is 
 more than theory would regard as probable. 
 
136 POKEE. 
 
 Here, however, I must draw these notes to a 
 close. I have been already led on farther than 
 I had intended to go. I shall note only one 
 other of the doctrines (mostly sound enough 
 theoretically) laid down in '^'^The Complete 
 Poker Player. ^^ '^^ Players sometimes/^ he says, 
 ^^ act on the strange principle that if they are 
 in bad luck it is well to try the bold experi- 
 ments usually regarded as bad play — as two 
 negatives in algebra make a positive, so they 
 think that bad play and bad luck united will 
 win/^ On this our author makes the significant 
 comment, ^' a slight degree of intoxication aids 
 to perfect this intellectual deduction.^^ Poker 
 playing generally, as a process for making money 
 more quickly, is much improved and enlivened 
 by a slight degree of intoxication. 
 
 STRAIGHT POKER. 
 
 " Take it up straighV 
 
 Winter's Tah. Act II., Scene Zd. 
 
 The fifty-two cards are used, and the rule of 
 the game the same as in ordinary poker, with 
 these exceptions. Deal passes to the person 
 winning. Before playing everybody puts up a 
 chip. You can pass and come in again at your 
 pleasure. The original cards are what you play 
 with, and you do not draw. When nobody 
 
POKEE. 137 
 
 enters^ the player to the left of the dealer makes 
 a new round of cards. Bucks are often used for 
 convenience^ the elder hand putting in as many 
 chips as there are players. 
 
 STUD POKER. 
 
 " ShalPs have a play of this f " 
 
 Cymbeline. Act F., Scene 5th. 
 
 In dealing, five cards are given, as in poker. 
 The first card is placed face down, the others 
 with their faces up. Then a card or cards are 
 drawn, which are not exposed. The raising 
 and all else is as in usual poker. 
 
 WHISKY POKER. 
 
 " I cannot doH without countersy 
 
 Winter's Tale, Act IV., Scene 2d, 
 
 This game begins by each player putting a 
 chip in the pool. Hands as in poker are dealt, 
 with one extra hand, placed face downward on 
 the table. This hand is called the widow. The 
 elder hand has the choice of passing, or taking 
 the five cards of the widow. If he passes, the 
 hand after him has the privilege. If the widow 
 is taken, the player puts face up on the table 
 the hand he has originally held, and from this, 
 in rotation, the other hands take a card or the 
 cards they want, replacing in the widow the cards 
 they have taken from their own hands. When 
 
138 POKER. 
 
 one player is satisfied with his hand^ he inti- 
 mates that he will close the game. Those after 
 him and up to him are still entitled to take or 
 exchange cards^ until his place is reached. Then 
 .there is a show of hands^ but no betting. The 
 best hand wins. If the first player has a good 
 hand, and decides to close the game, the widow 
 may still be used or exchanged with the widow 
 made as before described. 
 
 MISTIGRIS. 
 
 *' There lies a cooling card^ 
 
 Henry VI., Part I. Act F., Scene 3d. 
 
 The joker is used. The joker makes fifty- 
 three cards in the pack. The mistigris, in a 
 player^s hand, entitles him to increase the value 
 of his hand. If he has a pair, holding the 
 mistigris makes them threes. With threes, the 
 mistigris makes them fours. With two pairs, it 
 converts the hand into a full. It has all latitude, 
 makes straights, flushes, etc., etc. Sometimes 
 its power is diminished of course by agreement, 
 as in a full, increasing only the lower pair. All 
 else is as in regular poker. 
 
 TIGER. 
 
 " The Hyrcan tiger.'''' 
 
 Macbeth. Act TIL, Scene hth. 
 
 This is a dreadful innovation, but as it is 
 occasionally played we give it a place in this 
 
POKEK. 139 
 
 volume. The tiger in a hand of poker is the 
 very lowest combination of cards which can be 
 held. Five cards beginning with a seven and 
 ending with a deuce is a tiger. Thus seven^ six^ 
 five, four, and deuce, and nothing else, is a 
 tiger. There must be no pair in it. It can be 
 drawn for. It is supposed to be better than a 
 straight, and not as good as a flush. A tiger 
 then beats threes. 
 
ANECDOTES ON POKER. 
 
ANECDOTES ON POKER. 
 
 SENATORIAL POKER STORIES. 
 
 " /n winter'' s tedious nights, sit by the fire 
 With good old folks ; and let them tell thee tales.''' 
 
 Richard 11. Act V., Scene 1st. 
 
 There was a famous little poker club made 
 up of Senators of the United States, which met 
 several times a week in gorgeously furnished 
 private rooms at the hostelry of my friend John 
 Chamberlin the gastronome, in Washington. 
 At a seance in that convivial and charming com- 
 pany I heard these anecdotes. 
 
 A TERRIBLE BLUFF. 
 
 ^^A famous Chicago player named Dr. Powell 
 was sitting in a game with Senator Tom Bowen 
 of Colorado. One of the party said Senator 
 Bowen was a terrible bluffer, and thought no 
 more of losing $100,000 than the ordinary man 
 would $100. In those days a bluff meant a good 
 deal, too. Men used to go down into their pock- 
 ets^ and if you couldn^t cover the money on the 
 
144 ANECDOTES ON POKER. 
 
 table the other fellow took the stuff. We had 
 made a jack-pot^ and there was $2000 on the 
 table. Bowen had two pairs, jacks up, and he 
 passed. That was a trick of his. Powell had a 
 pair of kings, and he opened the pot for $50. I 
 had three sixes, and I stood the $50 and made it 
 $100 better. The other people dropped out until 
 it came to Bowen, who raised it $500, making 
 it cost $650 to draw cards. Powell and I just 
 stayed, Bowen stood pat. Dr. Powell drew three, 
 and I drew two. Powell caught a pair of fives 
 to his kings and I captured my fourth six. Say, 
 may be I wasn^t shaking, for I knew Bowen was 
 in for a big blufip. Powell seemed afraid and 
 silently laid in $20. I raised him $500 and 
 Bowen went $1000 better than me. Dr. Powell 
 took out his check-book and said : ' I suppose 
 you will not object to my check ? ^ 
 
 ^^ We murmured ^ no/ and he called the $1500. 
 I then got out my check-book and raised it $1000. 
 
 ^' Bowen quietly said : ^ If I thought you had 
 lots of money I would raise this pot enough to 
 make it interesting. As it is, 1^11 just tilt her 
 $5000.' 
 
 ^^ Powell laid down his cards w^ithout a word. 
 It took me ten minutes to decide whether to 
 call or raise ; but I was afraid if I raised he 
 would jump onto me for more than I could pro- 
 duce and thus capture the pot. So I said, ^ I'll 
 
AIS'ECDOTES 0>^ POKER. 145 
 
 call that/ Bo wen calmly threw his hand into 
 the deck, and I left town loaded down with 
 money /^ 
 
 THE ONE-EYED STRANGER. 
 
 The best of these Senatorial poker stories^ 
 however, is this, which I heard from Senator 
 Jones of Nevada : '^ One night at the leading 
 saloon of a little town in my State a party of half 
 a dozen were playing poker. Among the .play- 
 ers was a very nice young fellow, a graduate of 
 Yale College, and a man who had been quite 
 successful at mining, and had at the same time 
 made himself popular with his fellows. Another 
 member of the party was a one-eyed stranger, 
 and the rest was made up of other honest miners 
 about the camp. The play went on from early 
 in the evening until about midnight, and all this 
 time the one-eyed man seemed to get all the 
 good hands. Several times the college graduate 
 thought he saw that the man was cheating, but 
 he did not appear to notice it. At midnight the 
 college graduate rose up and quietly said : "^ Gen- 
 tlemen, we are all tired playing, and some of us 
 are about broke. I propose now that we take a 
 recess and have some oysters and champagne. 
 After we are through we will throw away these 
 cards, get a new deck, and see if our luck don^t 
 change. We will set out to play a square game, 
 
146 ANECDOTES ON POKER. 
 
 and ' (here he looked hard at the one-eyed stran- 
 ger^ as he put his hand at his revolver at his 
 belt) ^ the first man we catch cheating we will 
 shoot out his other eye/ Well^ the motion was 
 carried^ the oysters were eaten, and the luck did 
 change. The one-eyed man lost every cent of 
 his winnings, and as daylight broke through the 
 dirty panes of the saloon windows he arose, de- 
 claring himself dead broke. 
 
 }} 
 
 "LET HER BURN; THE POT IS MINE." 
 
 Years ago Senator Vest, when a young man, 
 occasionally indulged in the fascinating game 
 called draw poker, a game which we know is 
 thoroughly understood in all its details in Clinton 
 County, more especially Lathrop. Well, once 
 on a time Vest had tried a case in a little county 
 seat and received a large fee for clearing his man. 
 So much money in the hands of the young law- 
 yer was as tempting to the denizens as a cool 
 watermelon to a hungry nigger. The result was 
 a game of poker was gotten up. The boys in- 
 tended to fleece Vest, and of course stocked the 
 cards. They had no place to play in but a little 
 shed that had no floor but some fresh dry wheat 
 straw. It was a five-handed game, and a dry- 
 goods box served as a table. It happened to be a 
 jack-pot, and Vest opened it on three queens. 
 
ANECDOTES 0]^ POKER. 147 
 
 The cards being fixed^ the other fellows had 
 better hands and of course raised before the draw. 
 Vest stood the raise and drew two cards. As 
 luck would have it he got the other queen. 
 The betting commenced and grew exceedingly 
 warm. They would raise the young lawyer and 
 he would see them and go a little better. An 
 outsider, who stood in with the gang, looked 
 over Vestas shoulder and saw what a formidable 
 hand he had. He held up four fingers, shook his 
 head, and in other ways tried to warn his friends. 
 But to no purpose. He saw that Vest would 
 break the crowd, so he lit a match and set the 
 straw floor on fire and told them to run for dear 
 life. That cool head which serves him so well 
 now in the great debates of the Senate, and which 
 never lets him become rattled, did not desert him 
 then. With one hand he raked in the boodle, 
 with the other he exhibited his lovely queens, and 
 as he went out of the door with his coat-tail on 
 fire, he said : ^^ Let her burn ; the pot is mine.^^ 
 An hour or two afterward he sat in the hotel 
 surrounded by a crowd of friends. He told them 
 that the manner in which they weighed hogs 
 in Arkansas was to tie two boxes on the ends of 
 a pole and balance it across a rail fence. The 
 hog was placed in one box and the other one 
 was filled with rocks until they balanced. The 
 weight of the hog was ascertained by guessing 
 
148 ANECDOTES O^ POKER. 
 
 at the weight of the rocks. Vest then lazily 
 closed his near eye and slowly elevated the brow 
 of the off one^ a comical facial expression so 
 peculiar to himself^, and remarked that he was 
 of the opinion that some people in that town 
 knew as little about playing poker as the people 
 of Arkansas did about weighing hogs. The 
 crowd all laughed but the shed-burners^ and they 
 put on a sickly grin and went out and smiled. 
 
 "THAT TYPEWRITER." 
 
 Not very long ago Senator^ then Mr. Petti- 
 grew, was staying at a small town in Dakota, 
 where he knew two or three men whose piles were 
 nearly as big as his own. Some one suggested a 
 quiet game of draw. There being nothing else to 
 do Pettigrew was willing, and they adjourned to 
 a private room in the hotel, where a pretty stiff 
 game was soon in progress. After playing some 
 time a jack-pot became rather fat. Pettigrew 
 hesitated at first, but concluded to come in, and 
 drew four cards. 
 
 The man who opened the pot bet $50, and 
 Pettigrew raised the same amount. The third 
 player dropped out, as the man who opened had 
 not drawn any cards. It being then the turn 
 of the opener, he raised another $50, which 
 Pettigrew doubled. This sort of thing went on 
 
ANECDOTES OX POKER. 149 
 
 for some little time, until the fellow who opened 
 the pot began to get uneasy. 
 
 ''How many cards did you draw, Pettigrew ? "" 
 he asked. 
 
 '^Pour/^ was the laconic response. 
 
 ^' Well, you are betting pretty lively on a four- 
 card draw.'* 
 
 Pettigrew said nothing, but suggested that 
 they raise the limit to $100. The other fellow 
 began to get nervous, but thought his opponent 
 could not possibly have a better hand than his 
 own, and raised another $50. Pettigrew came 
 right back at him without a smile, and the other 
 fellow in desperation called. Pettigrew laid 
 down his hand — ace, king, queen^ j^ck, and ten- 
 spot of clubs. 
 
 '' Great Scott ! '' was the chorus. 
 
 ^' Guess that's my pot," said Pettigrew. 
 
 ^' What in thunder did you draw to ?"' asked 
 his companion. 
 
 '' That typewriter,'' said Pettigrew, indicat- 
 ing the modest little queen of clubs. The re- 
 marks of the players were very lurid as Petti- 
 grew smiled blandly and shuffled the cards. 
 
 '' What did you open it on ? " asked he at last. 
 
 ^' Three kings and a pair of aces, though I 
 don't know that it is any of your business." 
 
 That broke up the game. The Senatorial 
 players here heard this story of Pettigrew's luck 
 
150 ANECDOTES OK POKER. 
 
 and are fighting shy of him. They are pretty 
 good poker players themselves, but they are so 
 much afraid of the Dakota man's proverbial luck 
 that he has not yet been invited into a game. 
 He is watching his chance, however, and sooner 
 or later will get into the statesmen's game. 
 
 PLAYING FOR GREAT STAKES. 
 
 A SQUAW. 
 
 Jerking BilFs large pile of blue chips had 
 dwindled down to the bare possibility of an 
 ante on the evening following a mountain-sheep 
 hunt, when, it being that gentleman's deal, he 
 suggested a freeze-out. The others assented, 
 and in less than an hour every chip on the 
 table had gravitated into the pile in front of 
 the famous broncho-jaw breaker. Doc looked 
 rather blue over his losses, and a veteran cow- 
 puncher called '^ Parson Jack,'' on account of 
 his unexampled capacity for the most lurid style 
 of profanity, swore till he was black in the face. 
 Fortunately, it was not until he had cooled down 
 that he noticed that Jerking Bill still wore his 
 ^^ chaps." 
 
 '' What ye got them chaps on fer. Bill ? " he 
 demanded, suspiciously. '' Come, Doc, le's shake 
 him out of 'em." 
 
ANECDOTES OK POKER. 151 
 
 Jerking Bill's six-shooter came out with its 
 old-time fluency. 
 
 ^^No ye don%^^ he said^ with a grin ; ^^but^ 
 seein^ it was a friendly game^ you can have your 
 money back/^ and he cheerfully divided his 
 winnings prorata among the players. Then he 
 took oflf his huge cowhide leggins^ and with them 
 fell to the floor as elegant an assortment of aces^ 
 kings^ queens, and jacks as one would wish to 
 see. 
 
 ^^That^s why I wore my chaps/^ said Bill; 
 ^^ and that reminds me of a little game I was 
 steered against one time up on the Chugwater.'^ 
 
 '^^The stakes in this game/^ began Jerking 
 Bill, ^^was the handsomest young squaw in the 
 country. It was in '63, when ranching was 
 pretty ticklish business unless you stood in with 
 the Indians. The quickest and surest way to do 
 this was to marry into the tribe. In this way 
 you were sure to be eaten half out of house and 
 home by several hundred of your wife's relations, 
 but your scalp was safe and the redskins wouldn't 
 drive your stock off. As a general thing a Pi-Ute 
 squaw ain't noted for her beauty, and in the fall 
 of ^63 the stock had melted away before the de- 
 mand until v/hat was left was about the scraggi- 
 est lot you can imagine. All but See-Face-in-the- 
 Water ; she was young and a very good-looking 
 squaw, as squaws go. She wouldn't create 
 
152 ANECDOTES ON POKER. 
 
 much excitement hereabout now^ but to us poor 
 fellows who hadn^t seen a white Avoman for three 
 or four years she was a ravishing beauty. 
 
 '^ See-Face-in-the-Water^s father was a tough 
 old buck, who wasn^t such a fool that he didn^t 
 realize the fact that his daughter comprised the 
 bulk of his assets. Every unmarried ranchman 
 in the country was after the girl, but the old 
 buck, who went by the name of Eat-Thunder, 
 would listen to no proposals except those made 
 by Poker Jack, Seven-Up Andy, and your hum- 
 ble servant. We all had large ranches and good- 
 sized herds, and Eat-Thunder sized us up as 
 about the style of son-in-law he was pinin^ for. 
 Our ranches joined, and the old chap wanted us 
 to organize a stock company and marry the girl 
 on shares. We couldn^t agree to this, so Jack 
 suggested a game of poker, See-Face-in-the- 
 Water to be the stakes. Each of us was to take 
 $10 worth of chips, and the game was to last 
 until one of us had cleaned out the other two, 
 the winner to have the squaw. 
 
 '^ The game took place at Jack^s cabin. See- 
 Face-in-the-Water sat on a pile of buffalo robes 
 in a corner, and about thirty bucks (we^d taught 
 the whole gang the game) looked on very much 
 excited. To make sure that Poker Jack didn^t 
 ring in any of his under-the-table business on us, 
 Andy and I proposed that a buffalo robe turned 
 
ANECDOTES ON^ POKER. 153 
 
 bottom up on the floor should be the table^ and 
 that the three players should sit on three corners 
 while Eat-Thunder sat on the other to see fair 
 play. Jack had been riding on the range all 
 day and still wore his chaps. We told him he^d 
 better take ^em off^ but he said as he'd got sev- 
 eral miles to ride it wouldn't pay to take 'em off 
 for the few minutes it would take him to corral 
 the game ; so we didn't say anything more^ but 
 got to work. 
 
 ^^For more than an hour the game kept al- 
 most even^ and then Jack began to pull ahead. 
 Once started, it took about fifteen minutes to 
 clean me out and make a very large hole in 
 Andy's pile. About this stage of the game 
 Andy caught three deuces, and did some very 
 heavy bluffingo Poker Jack held a full hand. 
 The excitement became intense. Eat-Thunder, 
 who sat next Jack, had so far been a strictly 
 impartial witness of the game. JSTow he was 
 strangely agitated, and leaned over on his elbow 
 partly behind Jack, and seemed to be feeling in 
 his belt. Andy put up his last chip. Jack saw 
 him, and was about to rake in the pot, when 
 Eat-Thunder caught him by the wrist with his 
 left hand and with his hunting-knife in his right 
 ripped Jack's chaps open clear to the knee." 
 
 Here Jerking Bill paused, heaved a sigh, and 
 silently rolled a cigarette. 
 
154 ANECDOTES ON POKER. 
 
 " What did Eat-Thunder find ? '' some one in- 
 quired, Bill seeming to have forgotten that his 
 story was unfinished. 
 
 ^^ About the same layout I had a little while 
 ago. Poker Jack^s chaps down half-way to his 
 knees were lined with flushes, straights, and full 
 hands, with now and then a small pair for the 
 sake of variety. Poor Jack ! He was a genius 
 and deserved a better fate ! '^ 
 
 " Why, what happened to him ?^^ 
 
 ^'^A very fatal kind of an accident. Eat- 
 Thunder, enraged at the sight of such wholesale 
 cheating upon so solemn an occasion, made just 
 one more pass with his knife and poor Jack^s 
 head rolled over into the lap of the Indian maid 
 he had so nearly won. Then Eat-Thunder got 
 up and made a speech. He warned all |)i'esent 
 to profit by the example before them and never 
 commit the heinous otfense of cheating at poker, 
 an offense which, if it became general, would 
 undermine the bulwarks of society and yield the 
 bitter fruit of disunion, anarchy, and rebellion. 
 In order to make the lesson still more impressive, 
 Eat-Thunder subsequently drove Andy and me 
 out of the territory and confiscated our property.^^ 
 
 Jerking Bill was so overcome by the memories 
 his story had revived that he said not another 
 word, but presently sought the seclusion of his 
 blankets. 
 
ANECDOTES 0:N" POKER. 155 
 
 CAPTAIN BILLY CONNER'S STORY. 
 
 Captain Billy Conner told me this story : 
 ^^A magnificent Mississippi Eiver steamer was 
 on her way to New Orleans with a cabin full of 
 passengers going to Mardi Gras. The usual 
 brass band that played stirring airs at each town 
 landing was aboard. In the cabin were passen- 
 gers from all points along the river, and some 
 from distant cities. Of course there was j^oker 
 playing in the social hall in the gentlemen's 
 cabin, which was in the front part of the steamer. 
 
 ^^ When the boat landed at Natchez a big game 
 was in full blast. A stranger, tall, handsome, 
 and well dressed, came aboard. He had an hon- 
 est, open countenance, and won confidence the 
 minute any one looked at him. After he had 
 registered at the clerk's desk and been assigned 
 to a stateroom, he lit a cigar and slowly saun- 
 tered around. When he came to the table where 
 the big game of poker was being played, he sat 
 down behind one of the players. Now, it hap- 
 pened that the man he sat behind was not a 
 professional gambler, but his opponent across the 
 table was a blackleg of the most expert and cun- 
 ning kind. The non-professional, though, had 
 plenty of money and bet freely. The handsome 
 stranger sat quietly behind the non-professional 
 and gave pointers to the gambler opposite. He 
 
156 ANECDOTES ON POKER. 
 
 did it in sucli a quick and telegraphic way that 
 no one saw or even suspected him. The gam- 
 bler^ though, saw and understood his signs thor- 
 oughly. Finally the non-professional player 
 began to lose. If he had a good hand the gam- 
 bler would either pass out or bet and win. The 
 stakes were raised and several thousand dollars 
 were on the table in one pot. After the non- 
 professional had dealt the cards he picked up his 
 hand and found four hearts and a club. The 
 antes and raises Avere too high to go out, and so 
 he drew one card to a flush and the gambler drew 
 four cards to a king high. The latter didn^'t 
 catch a pair and the flush was not made. In an 
 instant the tall stranger communicated the fact 
 to the gambler that his opponent had a bobtail 
 flush and only queen high. Betting began in a 
 bluffy kind of way by the gambler putting up a 
 cool $1000. The non-professional saw it and 
 went $2000 better. They kept raising each 
 other until $10,000 was up, when the gambler 
 was called. He took in the money with a king 
 high, and the game came to an end. 
 
 '' The next morning the tall, handsome stran- 
 ger was strolling on the hurricane deck, when he 
 was met by the gambler, who requested the pleas- 
 ure of meeting him alone in his (the gambler^s) 
 stateroom. When they arrived there the gam- 
 bler carefully bolted the door and said : ' Now, 
 
ANECDOTES OK POKER. 157 
 
 pard, I wish to divide with you. Here are 
 $5000, half of our winnings.' The tail stran- 
 ger drew back indignantly and replied : ^ I do 
 not understand you. What do you owe me 
 $5000 for ? ^ Then the gambler explained that 
 he always divided with other professionals who 
 gave away the hands of gentlemen at the card 
 table. Without being embarrassed in the least, 
 the stranger said: ^I just gave you pointers 
 because I happened to sit behind that man. If I 
 had been behind you I would have given your 
 hand away to the other fellow. That is the 
 way I do ; I don't want any money. "" With 
 that remark he walked out of the stateroom. 
 I defy any one to match a phase of character 
 similar to that of the handsome stranger. He 
 got off at New Orleans, and lives in New 
 York to-day.'^ 
 
 HERRMANN'S POKER STORY. 
 
 I heard Herrmann, the magician, tell this 
 story once : ^^ I remember one night, not a thou- 
 sand years ago, that, in order to amuse a few 
 friends, I sat down to a quiet little game of poker. 
 You see, it was this way : I met the friends, and 
 was introduced to an innocent-looking youth of 
 the dude persuasion, whose face was as vacant 
 in expression as a pound of putty. This youth 
 
158 ANECDOTES ON" POKER. 
 
 had been bragging of bis powers as a poker 
 player, and had made the others so tired that 
 they whispered me to take the conceit out of him 
 for the fun there w^as in it. I was ready, and 
 we sat down.^^ 
 
 ''In Philadelphia?'' 
 
 '' Bless you, no. They don't play poker in 
 
 Philadelphia. This was in . Well, when 
 
 we began the game I allowed the youngster to 
 win in order to get him interested, and, the 
 better to enjoy the circus, the others dropped 
 out and my victim and I had the table to our- 
 selves. Of course, I was to give him back 
 whatever I won from him — that was understood. 
 We didn't play with chips, as we had none, but 
 made the game a quarter ante and a dollar limit, 
 so that we could use the money without making 
 any awkward change. Every time my callow 
 friend won a pot he put the silver and bills in his 
 pocket and would chip in the stuff as he needed 
 it. After he had won a respectable pile I began 
 to get my work in, and by handling and dealing 
 the cards in my own peculiar way I soon had his 
 pile in a fair way to innocuous desuetude. Oc- 
 casionally I would let him win, just to keep the 
 fun up, and I don't know but what I enjoyed 
 my opponent's innocence as much as did my 
 friends. But all things must have an end. 
 Finally I cleaned him out^ much to his surprise, 
 
ANECDOTES ON POKER. 159 
 
 and ordered a bottle. My friends couldn^t keep 
 it in any longer. 
 
 '^^I say^ old man/ said one^ 'do you know 
 who youVe been playin^ with?^ 
 
 '^'Yes/ replied my yictim calmly; 'Herr- 
 mann^ the magician^ and he^s a good player.^ 
 
 '' This was somewhat of a surprise all round. 
 But I laughed and handed him back the money 
 I had won. He wouldn^t take it. Iso, sir. 
 Said I had won it ; had he won mine he would 
 have kept it^ and under no consideration w^ould 
 he take it back. That was not his way of play- 
 ing poker. It was no use for me to protest, to 
 tell him that I had deliberately robbed him. He 
 was sorry that he had got in with a man who 
 didn^t play a square game, but that it was his 
 lookout. He ought to have seen that he was 
 being fleeced, but as he had been fleeced and 
 with his eyes open, too, he was not the man to 
 squeal. I tell you, I felt mean. I didn^t think 
 it half so funny then as I did before. But all I 
 could do or say made no impression on my vic- 
 tim, and with a dignified bow he left us. 
 
 ^''AU I can do,^ I said to one of my friends, 
 ^will be to give this money to some charitable 
 institution.^ 
 
 '' Then I gave the waiter one of the bills I had 
 won to pay for the wine. He came back with 
 it, and the information that it was a counterfeit. 
 
160 a:n"ecdotes on poker. 
 
 Yes^ sir. That guileless youth had won my 
 good money and rung in over a hundred dollars^ 
 worth of paper on me that wasn^t worth a cent 
 a pound. Fm pretty good on handling cards, 
 but poker is a mighty uncertain game — mighty 
 uncertain.^^ 
 
 WrNNING A WIFE. 
 
 I heard this anecdote of Sylvester Shively, 
 who died of apoplexy at Scranton, Pennsylvania, 
 not long ago. He was born in Wilkesbarre fifty 
 years ago and was a college-bred man. It is 
 thought by old gamblers in New York that 
 he has left nearly $500,000. He won his wife 
 by a game of poker on the Mississippi in the 
 summer of 1860. It was on the Eiver Queen, 
 and the game had been going on for some time, 
 and the stakes ran into the thousands, for there 
 was no limit in those days. One of the players, 
 after dropping his last dollar, drew his chair 
 back from the table, and going to the side of 
 the boat whipped out his deringer and put it to 
 his head. But he was not quick enough, for 
 Shively had him in his grasp before he could 
 fire, and he led the man into the cabin. There 
 the stranger introduced Shively to his daughter, 
 a beautiful girl of twenty. They say it was love 
 at first sight. Shively restored the man^s fortune 
 he had won, married the daughter, and promised 
 
ANECDOTES O:^ POKER. 161 
 
 to give lip gambling forever. He settled down 
 in Scranton and was living like a gentleman 
 when he was called to Harrisburg on business 
 during a session of the Legislature. He sat into 
 a game there and won $26^000. Shively was a 
 member of the famous '^Buckt ail/' a Pennsyl- 
 vania regiment that enlisted in 1861. 
 
 A SHARPER'S DICTA. 
 
 I once heard of a poker sharp laying down 
 the following rules : 
 
 ^* When you are a considerable winner in the 
 game^ keep continually looking at your watch, 
 if you have any ; if not, keep asking what time 
 it is, stating that your wife is dying, or anything 
 that will produce the impression that you must 
 go after that hand. After you have said that 
 fifteen or twenty times in half as many minutes, 
 if some one of the players don't beg of you to 
 get out of the game, then get up and apologize 
 for ever having a wife, etc. N. B. — This rule 
 need not be followed when you are a consider- 
 able loser. 
 
 ^^ If you are a big, strong man, be a poker 
 player by all means ; because, in case you are 
 beaten by a smaller and more intellectual gen- 
 tleman, you can bully him and lie him out of 
 the pool, or threaten to whip him, and grab the 
 pot. 
 
162 A^^ECDOTES ON POKER. 
 
 '' Never ante up till some one tells you to, 
 and then say that you have, and stick to it, 
 which will generally persuade some one else to 
 ' come in ^ twice. This rule, though an excel- 
 lent one, must be followed with discretion. 
 
 ^^ Toward the end of the evening it is always 
 better to ^ owe ^ up your ante ^ for a minute^ 
 than to ^ put ^ up, as the winner of the pot fre- 
 quently forgets to charge up the debt, and none 
 of the other players will remind him, as they 
 may wish to do the same thing/^ 
 
 POKER McCOOL, 
 
 There was once a famous Mississippi Eiver 
 man named Poker McCool. ^^ He was what we 
 called in those days a ''high roller^ — that is, 
 he would not only play for heavy stakes, but 
 would have gambled the last of his possessions, 
 even had it been a block of brick buildings, 
 on what he thought would be the top hand. 
 Where McOool came from to the river, as well 
 as whither he went upon leaving it, nobody 
 knew. But while he was there he made a name 
 and a fortune which were the envy of many a 
 less successful sporting man. His penchant for 
 and success at draw poker won for him the 
 pseudonym of ^ Poker McCool/ and I venture to 
 say if one were to take a trip down the river to- 
 
ANECDOTES OX POKER. 163 
 
 day he would find a small army of ante-rebellion 
 slayes wlio were either won or lost at poker by 
 McCool. 
 
 '^ McCool spent much of his time at New 
 Orleans^ and he became a conspicuous equestrian 
 figure there in time. He owned a big black 
 stallion^ for which he paid $1000^ and when he 
 w^as astride of the animal he was an attractiye 
 object — he and the horse. He thought much of 
 the animal and money could not haye touched 
 him. Well^ on the afternoon I am speaking 
 about McCool got into a poker game (good old 
 draw poker it was) with a wealthy planter named 
 Brady. If either McCool nor Brady belonged to 
 a temperance organization^ and a feature of the 
 game was the frequent turning of the ^ow card^ 
 for a drink. It was about sundown when the 
 deal began which ended the game and left 
 McCool afoot and bankrupt. 
 
 *^The deal was Brady\ and the first card 
 had been giyen to each of them when Mc- 
 Cool wanted a card turned for another round 
 of drinks. Brady turned it^ and a four-spot 
 fell to each. With a recklessness and gambling 
 informality which had characterized the game 
 throughout, McCool threw a large sum of money 
 on the table and Brady called it. It seemed to 
 be merely a bet before the draw, and the players 
 tacitly understood in what naanner it would be 
 
164 ANECDOTES 0:^" POKER. 
 
 won or lost. McCool called for another card to 
 be turned and it was done. Each got a five-spot. 
 McCool made another addition to the pot, which 
 Brady covered, and a third card was turned. 
 Each got a six. Up to this time the players had 
 intended that, after deciding the question of 
 drinks the draw should be proceeded with ; but 
 now the game took another turn, and it was de- 
 cided to settle the hands without drawing. The 
 fifth card was accordingly turned, and it was a 
 deuce. There was an immense pile in the pot, 
 and the interest among the crowd, which was 
 packed around the table, was so intense and the 
 silence so deep that the ticking of the tall clock 
 behind the bar sounded like a hammer striking 
 on an anvil. Both men sat deeply absorbed in 
 study. Mc Cool's buried card was a six-spot, and 
 he was certain enough that his pair had Brady 
 beaten. Brady^s buried card was a tray, and he 
 had a straight and a sure thing. His credit, sit- 
 ting behind that hand, was unlimited, and he 
 was prepared to play it out. 
 
 '^ The scene at this time was the most im- 
 pressive that I believe I ever witnessed. I never 
 saw an aggregation of men so thoroughly im- 
 pressed with the fact that a tremendous stake 
 hung in the balance. The betting proceeded 
 slowly but heavily, until finally McCool had all 
 his earthly possessions represented in the stake 
 
AKECDOTES OK POKEK. 165 
 
 on the table except two objects. One of these 
 was his stallion, who stood cham]3ing his bit on 
 the street outside ; the other was his old negro 
 slave, wdio stood holding the horse. Finally Mc- 
 Cool ordered the negro to be brought in, and 
 Brady deposited $2000 against him, at the same 
 time raising McCool $5000. 
 
 ''''After some moments of cool study McCool 
 told Brady that all he owned was on the table 
 with the exception of his horse. He was willing 
 to put him up against the last bet that Brady 
 had made. The proposition was accepted and 
 McCool ordered the horse to be led in, and he 
 was. The interest which I have described as at- 
 tending the game before now seemed intensified, 
 if that were possible, and the picture there 
 presented, with the faithful old slave standing 
 by his master^s chair, the agony of the suspense 
 which he was undergoing plainly depicted upon 
 his face, the magnificent horse, who seemed all 
 but conscious of the wealth at stake, and lastly 
 the players and spectators, was one never to be 
 forgotten. When the betting was at last over 
 and nothing was lacking to decide the game but 
 the appearance of the two buried cards, McCooi 
 called for a glass of liquor. It was not until he 
 had emptied this that he asked to see his op- 
 ponents card. 
 
 ^MVhen it was shown down he silently got up 
 
166 AKECBOTES OK POKER. 
 
 from the table and walked through the crowds 
 which parted for his passage, out into the street. 
 He never sat in a game that drew a crowd again, 
 and it was but a few months from that time 
 when he disappeared permanently from the 
 river. He was the first man to lose big money 
 at ' studhorse poker/ and he has had my respect- 
 ful sympathy ever since. ^^ 
 
 FAMOUS POKER CHIPS. 
 
 ^^ The most beautiful set of poker chips I ever 
 heard of was made for the famous John Morris- 
 sey, Congressman and State Senator. Before 
 Morrissey started his famous Saratoga gambling 
 house he had a place on Barclay Street in New 
 York. While there a party of Western sports 
 called on Morrissey and during the week man- 
 aged to win about $30,000 from him. 
 
 ^''As they had been treated very elaborately and 
 won so much they determined to give Morrissey 
 some token of their distinguished consideration. 
 After some discussion it was decided to have 
 made the finest ^rack^ of poker chips that 
 money could buy. The chips now in Washing- 
 ton were the result of that determination. There 
 were 1000 chips, with a few odd ones to make 
 up for any that might be lost or broken. Upon 
 each chip is a carving made by hand. On the 
 
ANECDOTES 0>^ POKER. 167 
 
 white ones is a small figure without significance; 
 on the others are carved the figures ' 5 ' and 
 ^ 25 Mn a center of red and yellow. Each chip 
 is carved by hand and from the finest ^ heart ^ 
 ivory that could be found in the city of New 
 York. The total cost of the set was over $2000, 
 or $2 apiece. 
 
 ^^ When they were given to Morrissey they were 
 polished to the highest degree and shone and 
 glistened in the light as though they were silver. 
 The case which holds them is of rosewood, finely 
 polished, and in the top is set a tiger couchant 
 of polished brass, two enormous cat^s eyes being 
 sunk in the head and giving it a peculiarly ani- 
 mated appearance. N"ow, because the chips 
 were given to him by winners, Morrissey thought 
 it would be bad luck to use them in the same 
 place, and in consequence they were not used 
 until after Morrissey started his place in Sara- 
 toga. 
 
 ^^ Then the superstition worked in accordance 
 with the gambler^s idea, and the first time they 
 were used in a heavy game Morrissey lost over 
 150,000. Then he put them on exhibition and 
 they were stolen within ten days. Some months 
 afterward they were recognized in a Bowery 
 pawn-shop, where the thief had pawned them 
 for $75. Morrissey redeemed them, and shortly 
 afterward they were stolen again. A young 
 
168 ANECDOTES OK POKER. 
 
 Englishman who was doing the country bought 
 them from the thief and carried them to Chicago. 
 After the habit of young Englishmen^ the tourist 
 in question became hard up and sold them to 
 the present owner^ who brought them to Wash- 
 ington^ where they have been for two years^ and 
 have been played with by some of the heaviest 
 poker players in the capital. I was shown them 
 the other day^ and they bear no more signs of 
 use than if they had been bought yesterday. ^^ 
 
 HOW A GENERAL WON A POT. 
 
 ^^I heard a racy adventure of General Forrest^ 
 the noted Southern cavalry commander during 
 the war of the rebellion. He returned to Mem- 
 j)his after the surrender with his wif e^ and with 
 only a single $10 bill in his pocket. Mrs. For- 
 rest was a lady of the most quiet, amiable 
 Christian virtues, and the only person, by the 
 way, who had any control of the ' wizard of the 
 saddle^ while in a passion. One touch of her 
 gentle hand, one soft, tender word would calm 
 his most tempestuous mood in a moment. 
 
 '^ Sitting alone together the night of their re- 
 turn to Memphis, General Forrest said : ' Mary, 
 I know you are a strict church member and have 
 always opposed cards. But this $10 bill is all 
 there is on earth between us and the poorhouse. 
 
ANECDOTES OK POKER. 169 
 
 Won^t you consent to my going out to-night and 
 hunting up a game of draw ? And won^t you 
 pray that I may win while I am out ?"" 
 
 " In vain the good woman protested. It was a 
 sin in the sight of God^ she said, and sin could 
 not finally prosper. He went, found the party 
 he wanted, and began the game. The cards ran 
 his way from the first, and his winnings grew so 
 large that he set his beaver on the floor beside 
 him and used it as a depository. About two 
 o"* clock in the morning he lifted his tile, bent 
 his head down and placed the hat carefully on it, 
 retaining the money inside. Reaching home he 
 emptied his winnings into Mrs. Forrest^ s lap, 
 saying: ^Mary, count it.^ She found that he 
 had upward of $1500 — a sum which gave him a 
 good start in life, after having lost all. ' I be- 
 lieve,^ said he, relating the incident to some 
 friends, ' that Mary, in spite of her objections, 
 really prayed for me while I was gone. At any 
 rate I found her still sitting up when I got back, 
 and I know her prayers have many a time served 
 me a good turn. ^^^ 
 
 FAMOUS OLD-TIME CARD PLAYERS. 
 
 CLAY AND GALLATIN AT SEVEN-UP. 
 
 Senator Beck, of Kentucky, is one of the best 
 story-tellers in Congress. He went to school as 
 
170 AKECDOTES OK POKER. 
 
 a boy at a college near Asliland, the residence of 
 Henry Clay, and he described the other night a 
 visit which a number of the college boys once 
 made upon the old statesman. Said he : ^^ As 
 Mr. Clay rose to meet us his face shone with 
 smiles, and every boy in the party was straight- 
 way his friend. In the course of the talk 
 he asked us what we thought of his pictures. 
 There were a number — some paintings and some 
 engravings — hanging upon the walls in differ- 
 ent parts of the room. We finally decided upon 
 one, the picture of a woman holding a bowl of 
 steaming mush in her hand, as the finest one in 
 the collection. As we did so Mr. Clay laughed, 
 and said : ^ Yes, boys, I think you have picked 
 out my best picture, and as you have done so I 
 must tell its history. I got that picture at 
 Ghent, and in a curious way. Albert Gallatin, 
 John Quincy Adams, and myself were there mak- 
 ing the treaty, and Mr. Gallatin and myself took 
 chances in a picture raffle. My prize turned out 
 to be that picture,^ pointing to an inferior en- 
 graving on the other side of the room, ^and 
 Gallatin got this. Now, Gallatin knew very lit- 
 tle about art, and I did not know very much, but 
 I could see at a glance that his picture was far 
 better than mine, and that I should be laughed 
 at if we took the pictures home and compar- 
 isons were ma^e. I saw that I must get hold 
 
AKECDOTES OK POKEE. 171 
 
 of Gallatin's picture^ and I said to him : " Mr. 
 Gallatin^ these two pictures were made to match 
 each other^ and the man who has one ought to 
 have both. Now, I will tell you what I will do. 
 I will put my picture against yours, and we will 
 play a game of cards for them. The man who 
 wins shall take both pictures, and you may name 
 the game.^^ 
 
 '^ 'W\\ Gallatin thought a moment, consent- 
 ed, and said ^^seven-np,^' " and,^^ continned Sen- 
 ator Beck, '^1 can hear Henry Clay^s hearty 
 laugh now and see his smile of intense merri- 
 ment as he concluded : ^ As soon as Gallatin 
 said seven-up I knew I had him. He knew but 
 little about cards, and I was one of the best 
 seven-uj) players in Kentucky. The result was 
 as I had anticipated, and I got the picture.' '^ 
 
 HOW CLAY WAS CHEATED AT CARDS. 
 
 ^^I heard a curious story of Clay while I was 
 campaigning in the southern part of Ohio. It 
 was told me at a little Ohio town, the name of 
 which I do not remember now. Clay was ac- 
 customed to stop over at this town on his way 
 to Washington, and one night while he was 
 here he became engaged in a game of poker 
 with several men about the hotel to pass away 
 the time. A professional gambler got into the 
 
172 ANECDOTES OK POKEK. 
 
 party^ and cheated for some time without dis- 
 covery. At last he laid down three aces, when 
 Clay had two in his hand. Clay had been ac- 
 customed to playing with gentlemen, and one of 
 the poker party who told me the story said that 
 his anger at this moment was terrible. He slow- 
 ly drew himself out of his seat, and rose upward 
 until he seemed about seventeen feet high. He 
 drew his pistol, and the man made for the door. 
 Clay did not follow him, but he expressed his 
 indignation by walking around to his cliair and 
 shooting a hole through its center. The gambler 
 left the town instanter.^^ 
 
 MR. ADAMS' JOKE. 
 
 The President is quoted as having his favorite 
 game. General Garfield was fond of euchre and 
 whist, and there are a score of men now in the 
 United States Senate who understand the most 
 subtle intricacies of poker. Daniel Webster was 
 a famous hand at euchre ; General Scott liked 
 nothing better than a night at the whist table ; 
 and Franklin Pierce knew how to play cards 
 and liked them. In the days of Pierce the 
 Presidents were more democratic than they are 
 now. They walked about the town and paid 
 visits to their friends in their rooms. An 
 old stager, whose white hair was black while 
 
ANECDOTES 0:N^ POKER. 173 
 
 President Pierce occupied the White House^ 
 gave me an illustration of this to-night. Said 
 he : '' At a dinner given by the American Com- 
 missioners after the conclusion of the treaty, 
 Henry Clay was sitting at the seat of honor at 
 the right of the head of the table, and immedi- 
 ately opposite him was sitting John Quincy 
 Adams. Mr. Adams seldom made a joke, and 
 when he arose and spoke as follows about Mr. Clay 
 there was no man in the party more astonished 
 than Clay. Said Mr. Adams : ' We have at 
 last finished the business which called us to this 
 convention, and I am glad of it. Not that our 
 relations have not been pleasant, but I think it 
 is high time that my friend Mr. Clay should 
 depart. I think it to the interest of himself and 
 family that he should go at once. Because, 
 gentlemen, at the hotel at which we both stop 
 there is a serving-maid, young, rosy, and fair to 
 look upon. This fair girl was met by Mr. Clay 
 this morning, just in the hall outside my room, 
 and I distinctly heard him offer her a five-franc 
 piece for a single kiss from her cherry lips. 
 Like a good girl she scorned his offer, tore her- 
 self from his embracing arms, and ran down the 
 hall.' 
 
 '^'^The assault was so unexpected that Clay 
 blushed to his temples, and was for a moment 
 at a loss for a reply. As John Quincy Adams 
 
174 ANECDOTES OIS" POKER. 
 
 was closing, however, he noted the well-known 
 weakness of Mr. Aclams^ eyes, which at all times 
 were full of water, and kept him constantly busy 
 mopping up the tears. While the attention of 
 the table of diplomats was so directed at Mr. 
 Clay, he pulled out his handkerchief and wiped 
 his eyes with a significant imitation of Mr. 
 Adams' gesture. He then slowly rose and said, 
 as he looked up and down the table, and finally 
 fixed his wandering orbs upon Mr. Adams^ face : 
 ' What the gentleman opposite me has said is all 
 true. It is true that the girl is very beautiful. 
 And it is true that her lips were very tempting 
 to me. The story of my failure to pick the 
 cherries is also true as far as it goes, but the 
 whole of the story has not been told. I did 
 offer the maiden five francs for a kiss, but as I 
 attempted to take it she sprang from my em- 
 brace and indignantly exclaimed : ^ Do you 
 think I am such a fool as to give you a kiss for 
 five francs, when Fve refused that old gentleman 
 across the hall, who has offered me twenty with 
 tears in his eyes ? ' 
 
 ^^The laugh was on Adams. He took the 
 joke angrily, and for several days would not 
 speak to Clay. Clay, however, went to him and 
 apologized, saying that he had been dumfounded 
 by Adams^ remark, and the more so because it 
 contained more truth than fancy /^ 
 
Al^ECDOTES 01^ POKEK. 175 
 
 HOW CLAY BEAT THROCKMORTON. 
 
 *^ Another story about Clay^ so well authenti- 
 cated that it comes to me almost directly from 
 Henry Clay^s mouthy relates an adventure of his 
 with old Throckmorton^ a noted hotel-keeper at. 
 Louisville in Clay's day. Throckmorton was 
 one of Mr. Clay's most intimate Kentucky 
 friends. In their latter days the two were al- 
 most inseparable^ and they often joined hands 
 over the whist table. Throckmorton was a fine 
 whist player^ and nothing irritated ^ him more 
 than to have his game interrupted or spoiled by 
 talking. Throckmorton generally beat Clay^ 
 but Clay got ahead of him at a whist party in 
 Louisville^ when he and Throckmorton were 
 partners. The stakes were nominal — $1 a game, 
 I think— and as soon as the party sat down at 
 the table Clay began to tell stories. The result 
 was that he paid no attention to his hand, and 
 through his blunders trick after trick was lost. 
 Throckmorton protested from time to time, 
 finally saying : ^ Eeally, Mr. Clay, for a man of 
 your ability, education, and reputation, you are 
 the poorest whist player I have ever known. ^ 
 The play continued the same way, and Throck- 
 morton grew more and more angry. At last 
 Clay said : ^ You are making more fuss by your 
 objecting than I am by my stories. ISTow,^ and 
 
176 ANECDOTES OJ^ POKER. 
 
 here he pulled out a $10 gold piece^ ^ we will 
 each lay $10 on the table, and the man who talks 
 first shall lose his money/ 
 
 ^^ To this Throckmorton consented, and the 
 $20 were laid beside the stakes of $1 a side in 
 the middle of the table. Clay then began to 
 play worse than ever. He trumped Throck- 
 morton^s ace and threw away his own suit until 
 Throckmorton, who for some time had been 
 gritting his teeth, rose, and, pushing the money 
 at Clay, said : ^ Here, take your money. I am 
 not going to let $20 stand in the way of my 
 telling any such card-playing idiot as you are 
 showing yourself to be what I think of him.^ 
 He then went over Clay rough-shod. Clay 
 laughed as he put the two gold pieces in his 
 pocket, and the company laughed with him 
 when he said that he had been trying for years 
 to beat Mr. Throckmorton, and he was glad to 
 feel that he had done so for once.^^ 
 
 A GAME FOR A GIRL, 
 
 A man from Louisville, who, of course, was 
 called ^^ Colonel,"^ once told the following anec- 
 dote : 
 
 ^^Fve nevah played any pokah, gentlemen, 
 since befo^ the wah,^^ he began. '"^ I used to be, 
 I reckon, one of the most incorrigible pokah 
 
ANECDOTES OK POKEK. 177 
 
 playahs in the South. But I could afford it 
 then^ and everybody played. I was a young 
 fellow of twenty-fo' or twenty-five, owned one 
 of the finest plantations in Kaintucky, and 
 had a partnership in tobacco warehouses in Cin- 
 cinnati and New Orleans. Tve lost ^em all, or 
 most all, since — lost most of my property, in 
 fact, with the cause. But at that time, the fall 
 of ^58 or the spring of ^59, I was about as well 
 fixed as any young man in the South. 
 
 '^ My business used to take me a great deal to 
 Cincinnati and New Orleans, as you may sup- 
 pose, and I always went by boat. There were 
 some great vessels on the river then, too — the 
 old Natchez, the Eobert E. Lee, the Pensacola, 
 and the old Hayes. They were' floating palaces, 
 and the biggest games of pokah I evah sat in or 
 evah expect to see were played in the smoking- 
 rooms and saloons of those boats. There was a 
 regular run of professional gamblers up and 
 down the river, but they were gentlemen, gen- 
 erally squah, as quick to defend their honah 
 as any gentleman, and generally friends of the 
 captains, who, they say, stood in with their 
 winnings. 
 
 " It was early in the fall of ^58, I believe, that 
 I left Cincinnati on one of the down-river fliers 
 at three one afternoon. There was a good pas- 
 senger list and considerable merchandise aboard, 
 
178 ANECDOTES OK POKER. 
 
 Among the merchandise I had about twenty as 
 likely mules as evah was foaled that I was goin^ 
 to carry to New Orleans an^ sell. Among the 
 passengers was an old gentleman from Vahginny 
 with his daughter, a mighty fine-lookin^ girl of 
 twenty, and her maid, a likely-lookin^ quadroon 
 girl about the same age. I noticed ^em that 
 night an^ the next day, foh there wasn^t any 
 game till the folks sort of got acquainted along 
 down about Cairo. The young lady was mighty 
 fond of that nigger girl and the maid was mighty 
 devoted to her. 
 
 "^^The night after we left Cairo somebody pro- 
 posed a little game, an^ I an^ the old man from 
 Vahginny, who was a rich tobacco-planter, as I 
 found out, agreed to sit in. The other members 
 of the party were one of the regular gamblers, a 
 fellow known as Colonel Somers, an^ a nigger- 
 trader from down river somewhars. I had about 
 $2000 on me an^ played with variable luck for an 
 hour or so, till presently along come a jack-pot 
 an^ broke me. 
 
 '' Colonel Somers won it, an^ he pinched the 
 old man pretty hard, too. I was a-goin^ to quit, 
 but he said : ^ Stay in, sah. Yo^ credit is good 
 with me foh the value of that twenty head of 
 mules on the lowah deck/ An^ I stayed. My 
 luck didn^t turn, though, an^ by two o^clock I 
 had lost every one of those mules. I sat out au^ 
 
AKECDOTES OK POKER. 179 
 
 watched the game. Presently the nigger-trader 
 began to play some pretty hard kyards an' was 
 gettin^ into Somers' roll right smart. It run 
 along that way for awhile^ an/ his luck leavin^ 
 him, he laid back an^ played ^em close, about 
 $3000 ahead of the game. 
 
 ^^The old man from Vahginny had been 
 a-losin^ steadily an^ seemed all of a sudden to 
 get sort of desperate. He says : ' Gentlemen, 
 Fm $4000 into this game ; I have no mo^ money, 
 but I have a mighty likely niggah gal aboard 
 that 1*11 put up at $1500 foh a few mo' jack-pots." 
 
 '' They both consented, an" the play got pretty 
 hot. It was mighty mean of the old man, I 
 thought, bettin" his daughter's own maid, but 
 he was a born gambler an' had that fiah in him 
 that makes a man let go of his ovahcoat. 
 
 ^'^It was five in the morning when that game 
 broke up, an' the old man didn't have a cent. 
 The nigger-tradah had been cashin' his papah 
 an" had made good to Somers. We went on 
 deck, the ole man an' I feelin' pretty blue, he 
 especially bein' all gone to pieces. '^I doan 
 know what I'm a-goin' to do," he said to me. ^ I 
 can get plenty of money in New Orleans, but 
 that isn't heah, an' that niggah-trader gets off 
 at Memphis. I'll have to give him the wench, I 
 reckon, but it'll break Georgia's heart to part 
 with her/ 
 
180 ANECDOTES 0]Sr POKER. 
 
 ^^Sure enough^ at Memphis the trader de- 
 manded his property^ an" there was an awful 
 scene. The old man pleaded with him to keep 
 the girl thah till he could raise the money an^ 
 come back^ an" even pretty Miss Georgia begged 
 of him. But^ gentlemen, he wouldn"t do it. 
 He insisted on havin" the girl. I hadn"t the 
 money and couldn^t raise it in Memphis^ or I"d 
 have offered it to him. But just as he was 
 leadin" the pooh^ cryin" thing off the gang-plank 
 up comes Somers^ who bows to Miss Georgia an" 
 says : * Pardon me^ but if I can advance yo" 
 father anything it"s at his service." The girl 
 thanked him^ an" turned to the ole gentleman. 
 He hated to take it^ but Somers insisted^ an" 
 called the trader back. 
 
 (( ' 1^11 give you yo" money foh that gal/ he 
 says. 
 
 '^ ^No^ thanks^ Gunnel : she about suits me, 
 an" I reckon Fll keep her." 
 
 '^ ' She is this young lady"s maid, an" she 
 wants her/ urged Somers. ' Fll give you $2000 
 foh her." 
 
 ^^^Not foh twice that/ said the trader. 
 ' She"s mine, an" Fm going to keep her." 
 
 ^^^If you do, it will be after Fm dead," says 
 Somers, and'he steps forward an" gives the trader 
 a slap across the mouth. Everybody grabbed 
 "em, and it was decided that the affaih must be 
 
ANECDOTES ON POKEE. 181 
 
 settled right. The trader stayed on the boat 
 till we run to a woodyard six miles below Mem- 
 phis. When we got there he an'' Somers^ the 
 captain an^ me went ashore. The old gentleman 
 wasn't allowed to go^ because he insisted on 
 makin^ the fight his own^ an' as his daughter 
 was alone except foh him we all couldn't per- 
 mit it. 
 
 ^^ Pistols were chosen, an' I dropped the hat. 
 Both went off at the same moment an' the 
 trader dropped dead. Somers left his remains 
 to be sent home on the up boat, with $1500 in 
 notes and a letter to his folks, an' we all went 
 aboard the boat again an' on to New Orleans. 
 
 '^ The old gentleman paid Somers there, an' 
 his daughter held both his hands an' thanked 
 him with tears in her eyes. The old man an' 
 I swore off poker-playin' right there together, 
 an' I've nevah played since. 
 
 ''^0, Somers didn't marry the girl, gentle- 
 men ; he had a wife in Cincinnati. He went 
 back home, an' when the wah broke out went 
 into the business of runnin' cotton past the block- 
 ade an' got rich. I've seen him several times 
 since. He's a prominent merchant of New Or- 
 leans now, an' doesn't gamble. That game broke 
 three of us of the habit — fo' in fact, foh the 
 tradah nevah played kyards again," 
 
182 AKECDOTES ON POKER. 
 
 "YOU CANT BLUFF ME." 
 
 In Richmond^ Va., not long since, the story 
 of a great poker game at Savannah, Ga., was 
 told. A party of five met in one of the private 
 parlors of the Scriven House to have a little 
 ^^dravv/^ Three were cotton merchants, one an 
 extensive manufacturer of fertilizers, and the 
 fifth a hotel proprietor blessed with a super- 
 abundance of wealth. The whole five were 
 ^^ solid men/^ or, as the Yankee farmer says, 
 ^^ All wool, and a yard wide,^^ whose checks were 
 good for any amount. Often during the game 
 these same checks were piled up when all the 
 ready money at the board was staked on a hand. 
 One of the players, generally a hard man to beat 
 on account of his perfect coolness and unbounded 
 pluck, seemed to be unusually unlucky on this 
 occasion, and before the game had become fairly 
 hot he had lost something over $10,000. Bid- 
 ing his time, the ^' Major '^ waited until several 
 stiff '^'^ antes ^' had been made, and when it came 
 his turn to put up, he laughingly remarked : 
 '' Gentlemen, this game is going a little slow. 
 Fll make it $1000 to play.'' Three of the others 
 saw it, and when his turn came, the Major raised 
 the blind $1000. This was also ''seen'' by the 
 others. The Major drew one card for a flush 
 and made a pair of deuces. The second man 
 
AKECDOTES OK POKER. 183 
 
 drew three carcls^ the third one eard^ and the 
 fourth two cards. Each of the others bet a 
 ''chip/^and the Major $5000. The second and 
 third men dropped^ but the fourth^, remarking, 
 ^'^ Major, yon can't bluff me/' raised him $5000. 
 Without moving a muscle of his face, the Major 
 drew out his book and writing a check for 
 $25,000, threw it on the pile, saying : ^'It jou 
 think I'm bluffing, come and see that." This 
 was too much for the fertilizer and he laid down 
 three kings, while the Major scooped in the 
 $42,000. 
 
 A GAMBLER'S TRICK. 
 
 Senor Cooper, a Mexican onyx king, said 
 this one evening : ^^ Poker is a seductive game, 
 and so I never play it. Still, I know the fine 
 points of the game. One time I was going to 
 Europe in a steamer and witnessed a remarkable 
 game of poker. Some men are born cautious 
 and keep cool under trying circumstances. A 
 well-known lawyer, noted for his scientific way 
 of betting at the poker table, was one of the 
 principals in the game on this steamer. Three 
 other men, supposed to be gentlemen, but one 
 was a professional gambler in disguise, were en- 
 gaged in the game. It was one of those five- 
 dollar-ante games w^ith no limit. A one-hun- 
 dred-dollar bet on a pair of trays or deuces was 
 
184 AKEODOTES ON POKER. 
 
 not uncommon. I knew the lawyer and wanted 
 to tell him that I suspected he was playing 
 against one sharp at leasts but I could not get 
 the opportunity. On the afternoon of the first 
 day of the poker game a group of interested 
 spectators stood around the table. I was behind 
 the lawyer^s chair. The betting was lively, and 
 the lawyer won $2000 in ten minutes, and 
 chiefly from the sharper. I saw that the gam- 
 bler was losing on purpose to bait the lawyer 
 and make a big winning. The gambler dealt 
 the cards and the lawyer got three aces. He 
 drew one card and got another ace. 
 
 '^ Only the five-dollar antes were up and the 
 lawyer sat there with four aces in his hand, the 
 biggest hand that could be dealt except a royal 
 sequence flush, which they had agreed not to 
 play when they began the game. The other 
 players passed out and the lawyer carelessly bet 
 $5. A little hesitancy on the part of the gam- 
 bler and he coolly went $2500 better. The law- 
 yer suspected trickery, but where could it be? 
 He held four aces, an invincible hand, and yet 
 the gambler evidently knew what he was doing 
 to bet so large a sum. It was a trying situation. 
 No one spoke. The lawyer counted out $2500, 
 but did not put it up. He paused and carefully 
 looked at his five cards again. In an absent- 
 minded way he skinned the five cards through 
 
ANECDOTES OK POKER. 185 
 
 his hand^ when lo ! the trick was exposed. The 
 lawyer had been given six cards by the sharp. 
 The sixth card was carefully glued to the fifth 
 card^ and as the cards were made of fine^ thin 
 linen, the double thickness was scarcely notice- 
 able. Any player having over five cards when 
 hands are called loses or forfeits all of his 
 rights, even if he has put up all of his money. 
 Well, the gambler's four-ace trick was exposed, 
 and the game closed by the lawyer denouncing 
 him as a blackleg and cheat. It takes nerve to 
 keep from betting four aces. Only a shrewd 
 lawyer would have detected the trick. '^ 
 
 A STRAIGHT FLUSH VS. FOURS. 
 
 A big game of poker was played on St. 
 Simon's Island, Ga., once. The principal play- 
 ers were ISTortherners who came over from Sa- 
 vannah for a day. After an hour or so of play, 
 with scarcely enough difference in fortune to 
 w^arm up the players, a jack-pot was made which 
 was not broken until four or five deals had 
 swelled it to handsome proportions. Young 
 John Z. Merritt, finding three queens in his 
 hand, threw in a twenty-dollar gold piece with 
 great confidence. Jay Hugh Bolton examined 
 his hand and found a pair of jacks and the ten, 
 nine, and seven of diamonds, one of his jacks 
 
186 AKECDOTES ON POKER. 
 
 being also of that suit. With the alternative of 
 drawing to his four-flush, Bolton remarked that 
 it would cost $50 to play and posted the cash. 
 All the players threw up their hands except 
 Merritt, who merely saw the raise. Mr. Merritt 
 took one card and got his fourth queen. Mr. 
 Bolton split his jacks, and drawing to his four- 
 flush took in the eight of diamonds, making his 
 hand a straight flush. Mr. Merritt casually re- 
 marked that his hand was worth $1000 and put 
 that amount in the pot. 
 
 ^^My hand is worth $5000/' said Mr. Bolton, 
 in a tone whose nervousness caused Mr. Merritt 
 to think that perhaps an attempt to bluff was in 
 progress. 
 
 '^^Five thousand more/' said Mr. Merritt. 
 
 ^^ Fifteen thousand more/' Mr. Bolton re- 
 torted. 
 
 '^ Thirty thousand more/' responded Merritt. 
 
 Bolton deliberated a minute, threw an I U 
 to balance the pot and said, ''I call." ^^Four 
 queens," said Merritt, reaching out for the 
 stakes. '' Not so fast, if you please — a straight 
 flush," said Mr. Bolton. Mr. Merritt's face 
 fell and Mr. Bolton pocketed his winnings, 
 something over $45,000 on that hand. 
 
AKECDOTES 02^ POKEE. 187 
 
 HOW A GAME WAS INTERRUPTED. 
 
 '^'^ Well^ I have seen some big poker games at 
 Albany while I was an Assemblyman/^ said 
 Smith M. Weed. '' The most amusing game of 
 poker I know of occurred during the war at the 
 Delavan House^ Albany^ in room 454. The lafce 
 Jacob Sharp^ of Broadway surface railroad 
 notoriety^ was the occupant of room 454^ and he 
 sat around the table with Harry Genet^ Henry 
 Smith, and others whom I do not care to men- 
 tion. Of course there was a great deal of war 
 excitement and the Federal forces were ham- 
 mering away at Kichmond, Va. These poker 
 players were locked in and betting heavily. 
 They were oblivious to war and rumors of war 
 while engaged in such an absorbing game. 
 
 '^ The news came that Eichmond had fallen, 
 and a certain Assemblyman rushed along the 
 corridor with several others to the door of room 
 454. Finding it locked, in an instant the As- 
 semblyman was boosted to the skylight or tran- 
 som just above the door. He got half way in, 
 balanced for a brief moment, and without warn- 
 ing his friends pushed him headlong into the 
 room. He fell right across the center of the 
 table, the chips flew in every direction, and 
 $5000 in bills tumbled all over the floor. The 
 legs of the table snapped in two like straws, and 
 
188 ANECDOTES 01^ POKER. 
 
 the lucky Assemblyman was on his feet in an 
 instant unhurt. At that moment the door was 
 pushed open^ and before a dollar could be picked 
 up the room was filled with men. The poker 
 players got their money, but great excitement 
 prevailed, and much amusement was extracted 
 from the players, who, of course, did not fancy 
 the rude way they were interrupted, even if 
 Eichmond had fallen/^ 
 
 "DIGGER" MIKE AND FRANK PAYTON. 
 
 A noted man about town in New York once 
 related this experience to me : 
 
 ^^ I saw a poker game once that I never will 
 forget. It was in Park City, Utah, in 1865, 
 when the mining boom in the Mormon territory 
 was at its height. One night I dropped into 
 Howard^'s place to see a friend, and while stand- 
 ing at the bar my attention was drawn to a re- 
 mote corner of the room by a crowd of men, who 
 seemed to be very much interested in something 
 there. The bar-tender told me that ^ Digger^ 
 Mike and Frank Payton, a miner and a gambler, 
 were playing poker, and, knowing both men 
 well, I concluded that I^d watch them a few 
 minutes. So I walked over to the corner and 
 took up a position where I could see the players. 
 ^ Digger ^ had five or six stacks of checks and a 
 
ANECDOTES OK POKER. 189 
 
 big pile of bags containing gold-dust^ in all about 
 $6000 in front of him, while Payton had about 
 $7000. Both men played cautiously for a while 
 until there was a jack-pot, which ^ Digger^ 
 opened with a bag of his gold-dust. Payton 
 stayed and raised him $250, which the *^ Digger^ 
 saw and went $500 (in gold-dust) better. Payton 
 just called this, and then skinned his hand and 
 asked for one card. ^ Digger^ dealt it to him 
 and then threw $500 worth of his dust into the 
 pot, remarking : ^I don^t want any.'' 
 
 ^^ Payton skinned his hand again, and after 
 going through the usual motions of looking at 
 his antagonist for a few minutes, he saw the 
 $500 and went it $500 harder. ' Digger ' was more 
 prompt in raising this four bags of dust, and 
 Payton even more promptly saw the raise and 
 went it $2000 better. Neither man was the least 
 bit nervous according to all outward signs, 
 though each had all his earthly possessions in 
 front of him and in the pot. They continued to 
 raise each other as they made bet after bet, until 
 the '^Digger' shouted for a show-down, saying 
 he couldn^t call another cent. Both hands went 
 down on the board at the same moment, and 
 then Payton reached over and began to scoop in 
 the gold-dust and checks. He had a pair of 
 fours, while the ^ Digger ' had been bluffing on a 
 kilter. ^ I didn't think you had nerve enough 
 
190 Al^ECDOTES OK POKER. 
 
 to follow me^ Frank/ was all he said as he got up 
 from the table to leave the place to go back to 
 the diggings to toil for more gold-dust. The 
 sequel of the game is interesting. Payton left 
 the saloon, toO;, after disposing of his winnings 
 to his satisfaction, and that was the last time he 
 was ''seen until his body was picked up a week or 
 two later in a ravine about a mile from Howard^s. 
 His skull was crushed and his money all gone, 
 showing that he had fallen a victim to somebody^s 
 cupidity. His murderer w^as never discovered. ^^ 
 
 *^ AIN'T YOU BETTING A LEETLE HIGH?" 
 
 Jim Joralemon was a Mississippi Eiver steam- 
 boat clerk and something of a poker player in an 
 amateur way. One night when he arrived in 
 N"ew Orleans — about a year ago it was — he was 
 introduced by a friend of his to a poker party at 
 a private club. Jim went into the game quite 
 innocently and played away until he had lost 
 $300 or f400, every cent he had in the world. 
 About this time he began to find out that, 
 although the game was high, very little money 
 was being put up — in fact, every one was 
 playing more or less on wind. This made Jim 
 mad, for he saw that he had lost his money 
 without having a show to win any. So he 
 turned the thing about in his mind for a while 
 
A:srECDOTES o:sr pokek. 191 
 
 to see how lie could get back what he had lost. 
 Finally there came a big jack-pot which a man 
 named Wilkins^ or Bilkins, who sat on the op- 
 posite side of the table^ opened for a considerable 
 amount. Jim came in^ and, after the draw, 
 raised it. 
 
 ^^I raise you $500/^ said Bilkins, throwing an 
 I II for that amount into the middle of the 
 table. 
 
 Jim combed over his cards carefully. He had 
 only a joair of deuces ; but he was as grave as a 
 judge, and, for all you could tell, he might have 
 had four aces in his hand. 
 
 ^^I raise you $30,000,^^ he said, and threw a 
 piece of paper with his autograph on it into the 
 pot. His w^orldly wealth at that moment con- 
 sisted of just twenty-five cents in cojDpers. 
 
 Mr. Bilkins turned a trifle pale. ^^ Ain't you 
 betting a leetle high, Mr. Joralemon ? '^ he in- 
 quired, with some hesitation. 
 
 ^^No higher than Fm in the habit of betting, 
 Mr. Bilkins/^ replied Jim, cool as a cucumber. 
 
 Mr. Bilkins Avas staggered. He laid down his 
 hand — it had three kings in it — and Jim raked 
 in the boodle. There was about $350 cash in it, 
 besides the I U^s. So Jim excused himself, 
 saying he had an engagement, and got out, de- 
 lighted to escape with his original capital. 
 
192 ANECDOTES OK POKER. 
 
 A STORY FROM VIRGINIA CITY. 
 
 They had a poker game once in Virginia City, 
 Nevada, in the back room of Jicarilla Bob^s place, 
 who was present to see that everything was fair. 
 The men at the table were Tom Sinsabaugh, a 
 cattle dealer, and Potter Abert, Omaha Throup, 
 and Pap Williams, gamblers. The game had been 
 going along for some time without much excite- 
 ment and with no very large winnings, when sud- 
 denly Pap Williams, who had thrown down two 
 cards, offered to go it blind for $50. The others 
 saw him, and a crowd that had assembled at the 
 bar moved over to see how the thing would come 
 out. All the others drew three cards each. Will- 
 iams ran his cards over carelessly, called for a 
 drink, and, with a cigar in one corner of his 
 mouth, said he would bet $50. All the others 
 stayed in, and on the show-down, no one mani- 
 festing a disposition to raise it, it appeared that 
 there were five aces out, Pap Williams having 
 three and Potter Abert two. This discovery 
 came very near resulting in war, but at the sug- 
 gestion of Jicarilla Bob the pot was left up and 
 a new deal was had, he taking the extra ace and 
 tearing it up. 
 
 After the new deal Abert called for four cards, 
 Sinsabaugh for three, Throup for three, and 
 Williams for two. There was now more than 
 
a:n'ecdotes ok pokek. 193 
 
 $400 in the pot^ and as Abert offered to bet $50 
 the others felt that they would have to see him. 
 When it came around to Abert again he con- 
 cluded to raise the terms a little^ and he put up 
 $100. This caused old man Sinsabaugh to draw 
 out, with the remark that the water was getting 
 too deep for a man with a little pair. The other 
 two saw the raise and called. Down came the 
 cards, and almost simultaneously with their ap- 
 pearance was the crack of a revolyer, and Potter 
 Abert fell out of his chair, while Pap Williams, 
 gun in hand, reached over and swept in the 
 pile of money. On the table in front of where 
 Abert was lying were five cards, three of them 
 aces, while in front of Williams were two aces, 
 one of them being a duplicate of one in the 
 hand of the man under the table. 
 
 A JOKE ON FLORENCE. 
 
 Mr. W. J. Florence, the well-known actor^ 
 relates this anecdote : 
 
 ^^ While poker is considered a national game, 
 I must confess that I have seen it played chiefly 
 in an international way, i, e., on board British 
 steamships carrying American passengers. I 
 only play cards en route to Europe to pass away 
 the time — nothing else, and then I do not 
 gamble. Once^ some years ago, I was playing a 
 
194 ANECDOTES 0:tT POKEE. 
 
 theatrical engagement in Louisville, Ky., and I 
 was invited to visit and participate in a late 
 Slipper after the performance was over. Among 
 those who were to be at supper was Henry 
 Wagstaff. The theatrical performance was very 
 long and it was near midnight when I reached 
 the bachelor apartments. I had no sooner 
 arrived than I noticed some little excitement 
 among the gentlemen present. It seems that 
 a game of draw had ended and a count was 
 being made of moneys. I had no alternative 
 but to await developments, and they came soon 
 enough. A big dispute arose across the table, 
 and in an instant Wagstafl was on his feet, 
 pistol in hand, and trying to aim at his antag- 
 onist, a well-known gentleman. I knew that 
 blood was going to be shed right there, so I 
 jumped up and threw my arms around the 
 editor. Others caught his arm and kept it up 
 so if the pistol were discharged it would only 
 damage the ceiling. 
 
 ^^The other gentleman was ferocious, and al- 
 though he was held by strong men I thought he 
 would break loose every second and fire right 
 into us. Great beads of perspiration stood out 
 upon my forehead. I pleaded with the Ken- 
 tuckian not to shoot : that he would regret it. 
 The more I pleaded and tried to keep his pistol 
 arm up the more he attempted to break away. 
 
AKECDOTES OX POKEE. 195 
 
 Every instant I expected to hear the cracky 
 crack of revolvers and to see the reeling form of 
 a man perforated with a large bullet. I pictured 
 the direful consequences and the blame. The 
 latter would partially j, at leasts rest upon me^ 
 because I was the guest of the evening and the 
 gathering was in my honor. In our struggle to 
 keep the two men apart tables w^ere overturned, 
 chairs were knocked down, and the money on the 
 table somehow disappeared like magic. Finally 
 I caught Wagstaff^s pistol in my hand ; and 
 then the lamentable truth flashed like an electric 
 shock through me^ to wit : I was being guyed 
 and the whole fight was concocted to fool me. 
 The pistol was nothing but a bootjack, one that 
 is small and when folded resembles the shape of 
 a pistol. I was completely taken in, and I need 
 scarcely say that the ^ smiles^ were on me. 
 That was the most exciting game of poker that 
 I ever indulged in/^ 
 
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"An almost perfect guide." — Publishers' Circular. 
 
 THE CYCLOPEDIA 
 
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 CARD AND TABLE GAMES 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 PROFESSOR HOFFMANN, 
 
 Author of " Modern Magic," " More Magic," " Drawing-Room 
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 In this volume Professor Hoffmann describes 
 sixty-three games. In carrying out the plan of 
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 vanced student — the aim therefore has been a juste milieu 
 between too elementary and too advanced. . 
 
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 Being a series of letters descriptive of every 
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