Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-07-03
SUORT-CARD GAMES.


as for heavy short-card games in
New York cannot say much; do not,
i'm Etrt, remember of any that ! would
call particularly heavy. Ben Wood
and John MOrriSSey used To play BOS-
tom for n .ruO 4 side, and have known
poker hands tO bc bct up 10 5000 or
SG,Uuu, hut that you cannot call very
big. At the present time the high play
is all confined 60 the private rooms at
the principle clubs and i'm certain up
town hotels, and j. carried on among
personal friends and acquaintance who
keep their own counsel. IL Is rumOred
that few gentlemen who habitually
meet in private room IN a, hotel not
three bl, cks from the corner of Broad
way and Twenty-Seventh street are do
ing the heaviest poker playing of the
present day, but | do not know it rs a
fact myself, am not personally acqualnt-
ell with them, and have no right to be
more explicit than have Deen in men
tiCuing them. And very much doubt
iftheir game is any heavier than is
played in two or three of he big clubs
III Fifth avenue
|The sporting men of the present day
do not" another player said, play as
bigShOrt-Card games a. those of q score
OF wears ago meSaid To have done, and |
cabot now recall having seen any very
blg plays. AS far rs my opportunities
for observation have gone, | am In
cinSi to think that there is a decided
falling Oft of interest in draw poker
amOl" the heavy players. No, poker
i noe, aS a general rule, more a game
for gEtlemanly paStime with stakes
that merely furnish n healthful eX-
citemant, so TO speak, and change OF
a thousand or two on a hand is some
thing tpre. And such bets are always
eXaggfated i'm the telling. | have
heard Il said that old Commodore Van
dcrbih Used to go out on heavy raids on
the faObankS, but | have been in the
: busine>Sseventeen years, running the
bigges, Rmes in New York, and never
saw him Before 4 layout or even heard
ON good bositive authority Ofhis having
50 appearfd. He used to play Boston,
| believe, for $500 or $1,000 side and
whist for good high stakes sometimes,
hut doHbt know whether he played
/ IOker or not. His son, Cornelius j.,
who she, himself, had the reputation
outside thagambling fraternity of being
a bold sdd reckless player at faro,
but did not Deserve il. He vas, in fact q
cowardly Small player ut the game
whenevcrhe had any money To play,
but never IL high stakes. If he lost any
big money sambling at any one time 1t
was among supposed friends. George
Hill, b, tier SHOWN rs Cooley Keys, was
one of the bcklest shOrt-card players, as
well as onef the pluckicst in facing
the tiger. thaaI ever knew, but | do no;
recall any particularly noteworthy
games of his nov.
THE NEwBURGH GAME.
One of Johnl MOrriSSey's most inti-
mate friends characterized the New
bugh game as he most extraordinary
games Of poker ever played in TINS
country "N hear of fortunes lost In
a night in Eur Dean gambling houses,
ne said isb,It n body has ever heard UNI
Mn now of sI5O.uV) being won on a single
hand M poker. The loser in that game
MAS stinned. o. course, but il he hadn't
bear - fool he wouldn't have lost so
mUrh He knew that neither of the
two man with whom he was playing
was GOOD for $4,000. But when they
bet their hands up to $3.50, 900 he bet his
moyry AGAINST them, knowing that il
7 he wen ne would not get his money. 1t
/ seem Incredible that he should not have
/ known hat he was being skinned. And
its a wonder to me that he paid what
he host. / don't believe there is another
man in the country who would have
Paidit, You have often heard of this or
that man winning and losing from Sl0,-
600 to $4,000 at poker at Jingle sit
ting. The evidences or s,chieh those
stories are based is ShearSay. L
ante was 500. Y6ch games are
seldom if ever ,yed in these days.
SNoney isn't so p.enty as 1t used to be.
Nowadays game in which four or five
siSosand dollars is Won and lost IS con-
:. sldered very heavy game. When
oP"rung men play together now they
o ~ los always play WHIT might be call
s eS 1ne table game. Eaeh player buys