St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-05-08
WASHINGTON JACK-POTS.
Big Games of Draw Poker in Which
congressman Indulge.
A Craze for the Seductive Emerald
Batze Extended to Fair Ones.

Baize Extended to Fair Ones.
Congressional poker parties are sail the
rage" says correspondent of the Boston
Globe. 1t is just the thing for a congress
man to inqre cOterie of choice friends to
his home on an off night to pass few
hours in the back parlor or library at this
fascinating game.
The average party is five and never
more than seven. A party exceeding six
cannot conveniently play at the same game
OF poker. So the old poker player takes
care that he does not invite too big
crowd.
In these back parlors and libraries, with
a decanter of whisky and any amount of
Hathorn water. seltzer and soda at hand,
as well as choice cigars, many registering
night is passed in the happy forgetfulness
OF the onerous legislative duties that will
dawn with the morrow.
II have been playing SO limit poker all
this winter" said Southern congressman,
say one or two nights each week, and
md that am about even with the game.
play only for pastime, and make no bad
SpurtS such as are common with men
anxious to win or to retrieve bad luck"
Many limits are even as low as so and %
cents, thus reducing the hurtful possibilities
of the diversion to the minimum notch.
But there are few senators and members
who would scorn to play at any game of
draw-pOker that had a limit. And these
are the games which you know exactly how
much it will cost you to come in, but not
how much it will cost you to get out.
There is man," said a well-known
congressional attache, pointing to a West
ern member, who has won $40.0 600 at
poker since the session began. If he keeps
on in good luck he will have over 800, 900
before the session ends, and when he goes
home his constituents will say he has been
bribed.
He came here worth nothing. and, of
course, when he gets back, buys a fine
house and begins to drive fast horses, it will
look suspicious. But happen to know
that he won his money at poker. l was
present at d game in senator's house one
night and saw him win IS, 900 on one hand
There were six gentlemen playing, and all
were in, and all had big hands. One had a
nine full, another a four-full, another three
aces, another three kings and another a
seven-full. 1t was $40 ante and $40 to
come in; but the first man straddled the
blind, making it $40 to come in. AS all
took cards, there were $40 in the pot to
begin with. The first man bet 5000. The
man to his left simply called it. but the
next man raised it $500. This put the bet
to $500, and the next called it.
"When it got to the Western gambler,
who dealt, he raised it to $1,000. This
scared everybody out except another West
ern man, distinguished railroad lawyer
The lawyer saw the congressman's $1,000
and went 81, 900 better, stopping to take a
check book out of his coat pocket and draw
sight check for the amount The con-
gresham saw this and went So, 500 better.
The lawyer then began to think. He
looked at the congressman sharply and
long to study his countenance to see if he
could form an idea of the hand he sat upon.
Then he fell to studying his own hand and
to rubbing his forehead in mediuativc
way. Then he laid his cards down, coolly
took out his check book, wrote a check for
So, 500 and called the congressman.
''Subtracting the $40 he had put into
the blind and the bets he had made him
self, there were exactly Sc, 100 in the pot,
which represented the congressman's win
ningS on that hand.
The railroad lawyer, who is exceedingly
well known East and West, went to New
York the next day, and afterward heard
that he lost $50, 900 one night at poker in a
room in hotel there
A Southern congressman was credited
last winter with winning enough money at
poker to pay off $50, 600 mortgage, with
interest on his plantation, and to replace
his old mules plows, wagons and farm i'm
plements generally with new ones. He
would not play except at unlimited games,
and he played with dash and boldness
that dismayed his opponents. Luck at
tended him until the shank end of the ses-
sion.
Finally it turned, but too late for the
losers to get much of their money back
The Southerner went home $4,000 better
off than he came.
| The poker craze is not by any means con-
| fined to the men who habitate in Washing
| ton. The ladies are as much carried away
as their husbands, and, while the PRO
gressive euchre party" has its mild and
conservative adherents, poker parties, -
in which ladies freely and enthusiastically
| participate, have become, in large meas
| ure, an indispensably fashionable adjunct
to the variety of entertainments in bon-ton
residences
Many ladies keep an ornamentally bound
volume of Hoyle in their boudoirs, and can
point you to the very page and line where
the great authority says straight flush
beats four aces. Others only keep Hoyle
for style, but never read it.
II never read Hoyle." anguidIy said
charming lady of some fifty summers, as
she bore heavily upon cushioned sofa at a
recent reception. MY husband, the sena-
tor, has forgotten more about poker than
Hoyle ever knew, and 1 depend entirely
upon his Judgment. Excuse the phrase
but assure you the senator is very flip.
Of course he is too honorable to take adj
vantage of his deXterity in game with
gentlemen, but la me, he could if he was
mean enough. And do believe there are
some gentlemen mean enough to play sly
trick when they get a chance"
Preference is made only to gambling as a
fashionable. amusement in Washington.
Outside of this poker is the recognized
game everywhere. Every leading hotel has
its poker room-that is spare apartment
that guests may utilize for the game. Be-
sides these the town is dotted with poker
clubs.
Occasionally the police make raid, but
their raids are uniformly confined to the
cheap and obscure places. The ''tony''
clubs are never disturbed. Faro has been
eXpurgated from the capital, but draw po-
ker has taken deeper root than ever faro
had.
A PLEASANT EXCURSION.