Sacramento daily record-union., 1883-09-22
PROFESSOR PROCTOR on POKER.
The Eminent Astronomer Gives His Views
on Betting and BIufhng.

The game of poker has won the heart
English astronomer. The astronomer has
gone into the hidden mysteries of the
cards. He has studied them, written an
srticle on poker, and now is prepared to
give advice when to bluff, and how to
bluff, when to raise and when to leave
the game. For some time past the astron-
omer and "The Complete Poker Player
have been close and intimate friends, and
now the astronomer, if he be not blufing,
is prepared to give advice to The Complete
Poker Player. The astronomer was evi.
IDENTIFY sin the vein" when he wrote his
essay on poker playing, but does not agree
with experienced gamblers, who hold that
the poker player should first see if he be
in the vein " before playing. The astron-
omer does not believe in luck. Faith in
good luck that will stay, conviction that
bad luck will change-these trivial absurdi-
ties, says the astronomer, "have in all
ages led men astrsy." The secret of
success in poker is lying in wait. Pro-
fessor Proctor, after speaking for
some length ON the Complete Poker
Player" goes on TO say "COnstant eau
tion is apt to diminish the profits of sue
csssful ventures. The poker player wants
others to play high when he has winning
hand, and if it becomes known that he never
backs any but strong hands, none will
raise very much against him. To sue.
ceed in pocketing large share of other
peoples money the player must indulge in
an occasional extravagance. So also with
very strong hand-one that is practically
sure to win-the judicious poker player
must play waiting game. He must re-
verse the tactics of the buffer, who tries
to persuade others that his hand is better
than it really iz.
''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 containing fifty-two cards has to
be determined. This is easy enough. You
multiply together 81, 81, 80, 40 and As and
divide the product by that obtained from
multiplying together l, ., g. A and 5. You
thus get ., 59S, $50 as the total number of
poker hands.
"It is very easy to determine the num-
Der of fushes and sequences and flush
sequences which are possible. Thus, be-.
gin with the fnsh sequences. We can
have in each suit, ace, 2, 8, 4, 5; 2, 3, 4,
5; 4, 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 ali. The number of sequences
which are not flush may be thus deter
mined. The arrangements of numbers may
be any of the ten just indicated. But tak.
ing any one of these, as 3, 4, 5, 6, Z, these
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 that with the second, third, etc. ..
or in all 4 times times 4 times times,
or l,024, four of which only will be fiushes
Thus there are l,020 times 10 or 10, 200
sequences which are not flush. Now as
respects hushes their number is very easily
determined. The number of combinations
of five cards which can be formed out of
tie thirteen cards of suit are given by
multiplying together l3, l.. IL, 10 and 9,
and dividing by the producs of |, ,, 3, 4,
) !; this will be found to be l,2S7. Thus
there are 4 times l,2S7, or 5, l4S possible
tlushes. OF these 5, los are not sequence
fushes."
Full hands are also considered by the
Professor, and other hands, until the fol-
lowing discovery is made, that of the four