Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-09-11
PROF. PROCTOR ON POKER.
The Eminent Astronomer Gives His
Views on Betting and BIufing.
Ne3r YOpE Wor17

/ The game of poker has won the heart
/ OF Mr.. Richard A. Proctor, the eminent
English astronomer. The astronomer has
4 gone into the hidden mysteries of the
cards He has studied them. written an
I article ON poker, and now is prepared to
! give adVlce when to 'bluff'' and how to
/ BLUM, when to "raise'' and when to leave
1 the game. For some time past the as
/ trOnOmer and THE Complete Poker
Player" have been close and Intimate
| friends, and now the astronomer. if he be
not blufting, is prepared to give advice to
the complete Poker Player" The as
| tron0mer was evidently sin the veinv
when he wrote his essay on poker play
ing, but does not agree with experienced
gamblers, who hold that the poker PLAYER
should first see if he be S'in the vein'' he
lore playing. The astronomer does
not believe in luck. EFaitb in
good luck that will stay- CON
viction that bad luck will change-these
trivial absurdities," saws the astrono-
mer, "have in all ages led men astrav.''
Inc secret OF success in poker is living in
wait. Professor Proctor, after speaking
Tor some length on the "Complete Poker
Player,' goes on to say ''COnstant can
tion IS apt to diminish the profits of sue
cesstul ventures. The poker plaver wants
others to play high when he has a win
nlng hand, and if it becomes known that
he never backs any but strong handse
none Will raise very much against him.
10 succeed in pOcketing a large share of
other peoples money the player must in
dulge In an occasional extravaganza. So,
also, with very strong hand-One tIult is
practically sure to Win-the iudicOus
poker player must play waiting game.
lie must reverse the tactics of the buffer.
VINO trles to persuade others that his
hand is better than it really is.
Let us consider briefly what are tho
chances for each different kind of hand at
poker. First the total number of wavs in
which set of five cards can be formed
out OF pack containing fifty-tWO cards
has to be determined. This is easy
enough. You multiply together %, 81, 90,
40 and 4S, and divide the product bv that
obtained from multiplying together /, ,, 3,
ana .. lou thus get 2,59S,960 as the
total number of poker hands.
lit Is very easy to determine the num-
Der of fiushes and sequences and flush Sc
quences which are possible. Thus. begin
with Hush sequences. We can have i'm
each SUIT, ace, ,, ), 4, >; ,, 3, 4, 6: ), 4, 3,
y, :; and so on up to 10, knaVe queen.
king, ace; or in all there are ten flush
sequences IN each suit, forty flush Sc
quences in all. The number of SEQUENCES
which are not flush may be thus determin-
ed. Inc arrangement of numbers may be
any one of the ten just indicated. But
taking any one of these, as 3, 4, ), 6, :, 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 ali times times times times 4
or 1,O24, four of which only will be flushes,
Ihus there are 1,O2O times 10 or 10, 200 Sc
quences which are not flush. Nowaas re-
spects tlushes 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 multi
plying together 13, u, II, 10 and s, and di-
viding by the product of /, ,, 5, 4, 8; this
will be found to be 1,2S7. Thus there are
4 times l,2S7, or 3, 148 possible tlushes. OF
these ., los are not sequence flushes."
Full hands are also considered bv the
professor, and other hands, until the fol-
lowing discovery is made, that of the four
best class of hands: