The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1882-07-05

m0gnltuue OF kaiucs vi pohei, ohc vi such
said, "just as they do about the size and
numbers OF the fish they catch. II fellow
wins thousand dollars some night, he will
almost certainly be surprised before the
week is out to hear that 10 was ten thou
sand. Such stories grow In the most I'M
accountable way. The only really big play
ing that ever knew Of myself was ut faro,
which Is the king game after all, and even
then Il was not, as is the rule, by betting
straight between dealer and player, but by
stacking up between players. Suppose
the limit OF the game is 81 ,0e0, which Is all
the bank risks on single turn OF card.
A. sitting before the board, puts up against
the bank TO that limit, then B puts up 81 900
against A; another thousand or five or ten
thousand may be put up by A and met with
a like amount by Il, and so on until they
get ND all that they choose TO bet, all OF
which goes on the turn OF the card between
the players, while the bank can neither
win nor lose more than its $1,000. In
that way 1 have often known OF from
$4,000 to $4,000 changing hands in
night in the big games that Ben. Wood,
Leonard Gerome, +. u. Simmons, John To-
bin, and John Morrissey played together.
Wood, Simmons, Morrissey, and Tobin
were all interested together in q lottery, the
capital OF which was in 125 shares, worth
$4,000 each, and they used to meet and play
those shares, sometimes twelve or sixteen
shares changing owners at sitting. When
they played in that way they usually took
turns at dealing. Leonard jerome once lost
100000 in night playing against combi-
nation game In which Morrissey, Charles
Walsh, and Ransom were interested. Col
ton, Thomas, Daucey, and Pettibone were
the heaviest regular performers OF that
'stacking-up' process that we ever had in
this country. Nobody nowadays plays any
such games as were common with them.
sHoRr.cARD GAMES.
"As for heavy sbort-card games In New
York cannot say much; do not, in fact,
remember OF any that | would call partc-
ularly heavy. Ben. Wood and John Nor
rissey used to play Boston for 8, 900 side,
and have known poker hands to be bet
up to $4,000 or $4,000, but that you cannot
call very big. At the present time the
high play is all confined to the private rooms
at the principal clubs and in certain uptown
hotels, and IL carried on among personal
friends and acquaintance who keep their
own counsel. It's rumored that ia few gentle
men who habitually meet in private room
in hotel not three blocks from the corner
OF Broadway and Twenty-seyenth street
are doing the heaviest poker-playing Of the
present day, but do not know it as n fact
myself, am not personally acquainted with
them, and have no right to be more ex-
plicit than have been in mentioning them.
And l very much doubt II their game Is
any heavier than is played in two or three
OF the big clubs in Fifth avenue"
''The sporting-men Of the present day
do not" another player said, "play as big
short-card games as those OF a score OF
years ago are said to have done, and l cam
not now recall having seen any very big
plays. As far as my opportunities for OBJ
servation have gone, i am inclined
to think that there is n decided fall
ing Off OF interest in draw poker
among the heavy players. No, poker
Is now, rs general rule, more a
game for gentlemanly pastime with stakes
that merely furnish a healthful excite
ment, so to speak, and a change Of thou
sand or two on a hand is something rare.
And such bets are always exaggerated in
the telling. i have heard it said that old
Commodore Vanderbilt used to go out on
heavy raids on the faro-banks, but | have
been in the business seventeen years, rum
ming the biggest games in New York, and
never saw him before layout or even
heard on good positive authority Of his
having so appeared. He used to play Bos-
ton. / believe, for $500 or 81 900 a side and
whist for good high stakes sometimes, but
do not DIV whether he played poker or
not. Hi :. Cornelius j., who shot him.
self, had reputation outside the gam
bling frat. ty OF being bold and reck-
less player faro, but did not deserve it.
He was, in fact, a cowardly, small player at
the game whenever he had any money to
play, but never for high stakes. II he lost
any big money gambling at any one time it
was among supposed friends. George Hill,
better known as Cooley Keys, was one OF
the boldest short-card players, as well as
one Of the Quickest in facing the tiger,
that i ever knew, but l do not recall any
particularly noteworthy games OF his now"
THE NEwBURGH GAME.
One OF John Morrissey's most intimate
friends characterized the Newburgh game
as the most extraordinary game Of poker
ever played in this country. awe hear OF
fortunes lost in a night in European gam
bling houses" he said, "but nobody has
ever heard until now OF S150,000 being
won on single hand at poker. The loser
in that game was skinned, OF course,
but IL he hadn't been a fool he
wouldn't have lost so much. He
Knew tndt utlt1tI Vi Tie TWO Hen Wltn
whom he was playing was good for SEQ
But when they bet their hands up to $780,
600 he bet his money against them, know
ing that il he won he would not get his
money. 1t seems incredible that he should
not have known that he was being skinned.
And it's wonder to me that he paid what
he lost. don't believe there is another
man in the country who would have paid
1t. You have often heard OF this or that
man winning or losing from $4,000 to
$4,000 at poker at a single sitting. The
evidence on which those stories are
based Is usually hearsay. / once
played In game in which the
ante was 300. But such games are
seldom, II ever, played in these days. Mo-
ney isn't so plenty as it used to be-. Now.
Adays, a game in which four or five thou
sand dollars Is won and lost Is considered a
very heavy game. When sporting-men play
together now, they almost always play what
might he called the table-game. Each
player buys as many chips rs he wishes, and
plays for no more money than they repre-
sent. Each man is in this game given a
show for his money, and no one player can
make an opponent lay down his hand by
betting more than he can cover"
"Was John Morrissey heavy player?"
eyes; when he played cards there was
generally good deal Of money won and
lost. He was fond OF Boston, and used TO
play It often with two men who were then
prominent New York politicians. When
they got together S25, 900 or $4,000 would
usually change hands before the game was
over"
"Did Morrissey ever lose $1,000 at
oneef"