Omaha daily bee., 1884-05-23
! beat you sooner or later if you play

Istreet, New York, continued the strans
or, was q victim of the same sort {
deluslon | have spoken of. We did
. good business at our place e. worth nor
haps $50, coo a year-and lots of wealth.
, brokers' were customers of ours. Nj,
, partner and myself thought we had
system that Vas a sure thing, and ever,
cent we made We lost at others banks
until finally we impaired our own capita
so seriously as to cripple us, and at run o
luck the wrong way broke us. Tha
gave me a lesson, and | have given III
systems from that time forth.
Tho notion that it is possible to de
wise a system of play that is sure to viii
is one OF the most curious deliriums il
the world, and yet the most experienced
gamblers are thoroughly imbued with it
AT Monaco, or any other great gambl.
ing place, you will see the player,
pricking off the turns on q card, anC
stalking their money accordingly. They
never quite loose the idea that eventuall,
they will arrive AZ the great secret which
will enable them to beat the bank
combination of probabilities which shall
amount to u certainty. Men have spon
their lifetime in the vain cndeavor TO ella
borate a method, which, like the philoso
piers stone and the theory of perpetua
motion, continually eluded them.
ut is not alone in the percentage in
its favor that the bank has an advantage,
The fact is that when you play against a
bank you play against a machine, and a
machine can beat n man out of sight
every time. Few men have the nerve
to quit the table when they are ahead, for
the seduction of gambling is go absorbing
that if a man wins his appetite for play
is whetted, and if he loses, he must go
on in order to retrieve his losses. The
average man is not contented to win a
reasonable amount, but plays on until he
has lost every cent in his pocket. A
friend of mine, an experienced gambler
told mo once that the only system ofplay
he had ever discovered consisted in fol.
lowing the luck, as he called it. Luck, ;
he said seems to runin streaks. When
I'm in luck bet, and when tho luck is
against me | lay back, and put up an DC.
casional chip to see how it goes. If the
luck has been running my way and sud.
denly stops, | cast in my chips and leave.
ut is curious how a color will run
sometimes, in a game like rouge. ct. noir
for instance. Red was turned up, on
one occasion at Monaco, thirteen times
in succession, and the banks won more
that u million francs. 1t is on these long
runs of a color that the bank makes its
biggest winnings. People think that be-
cause n color has turned up several times
in succession it hasn't a good chance of
coming up the next, and 80 pile their
money and double their bets on the other
color. or course, as a matter of fact
the chances are always exactly even,
although it isquite impossibleto convince
ninety-nine people out of a hundred that
such is the case. 1t is a question that
has puzzled everybody who has ever
thought about it. Apparently, if red
has been turned up six times in succeE-
sion, the chances are lar gely in favor of
black on the seventh turn of the cards.
1t is not true, however, for how isit
possible that the result of an individual
turn EN- be affected by turns which have
already been made and which lie in the
past
"When our bank was broke in New
York l struck for the west and play
poker on the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. My
partner, Joe Mason, was a tirst-class polk
~er-player, the coolest hand l ever met,
and a perfect gentleman. Ho could dis
count your society swells for tone. Gne
night a stranger came into our game a
few hours after we left New Orleans.
The luck ran against him and he lost
several hundred dollars-all he had, l
guess. He borrowed a stack of chips
$50 worth-and played them with a
trembling hand. In a couple of deals
he said, hoarsely to Joe.
81 don't know you,' Joe replied, and
I'm not going to stake you in the game.
If you are broke you had better with
draw.
"The strangers lip quivered-he had
been drinking heavily. You have
swindled me out of my money! he said,
and drawing a revolver from his hip
pocket he fred.
"Joe did not move a muscle of his
tace-the bullet cut off the corner of
the ace of clubs he held between his
fingers. His hand sought his pistol
pocket, but, checking tho movement,
and seeing the man had been disarmed,
he simply straddled the ante, and said,
You should learn IT, shoot better, Mr..
Stranger. Il could have killed him
he said afterward to me, but he was
drunk, so | let him co.
81 never have played anything but a
square game of poker, and / have won
large sums at it. Poker isn't the game
of chance it is generally thought. | re-
gard it as essentially n game of skill.
A man who bases his play Oh good judg-
ment and a little mathematics is sure
to come out ahead. Once in my life j
got into a game of poker with n man who
had a bug"
"a bug2' said the reporter, interroga-
lively.
"Yes, a little steel instrument with a
spring that can be fastened under the
table. 1t was at a mining-camp in Cali
f%ornia, when the gold fever was at it's
height. We fellow was a sharper and l
had had my eye on him all through the
game. He kept his hand below the level
of the table most of the time, and held
remarkable cards. i watched him
until | was sure | was not mistaken, and
then ] pricked him under the table, and
said, Hand it overt He looked up in
surprise.
"Hand it over!' ! repeated.
"Wha do you mean2" he said, inno-
Gently; but the other players were looking
at him. and he got red and pale by turns.