The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-02-01
Boston's Draw Poker Sharps.

The great gambling game in Boston is
draw poker. 1t is played not in proprietary
establishments to any great extent, but In
hotel rooms mostly, whore little k OTIS of
men gather for a quiet contest with the
ivory discs. There is hardly night when
a dozen rooms in the Adams house are not
occupied by such poker parties. The other
hostelries about town, too-Young's, Par
ker's, and the reSu-have e nearly equal
patronage of a similar character. If you
want TO play cards for money in this city
you have only to drop in at the first hotel
come TO and ask for an apartment with
a box of chips and the ct ceteras. You are
always likely to find half a dozen we'll
dressed persons loafing about the lobby,
who will join You II you care to suggest
the notion. Under such circumstances
you are likely to get skinned alive; for ad-
verSaries picked I'D in this way are more
than apt to be professional poker sharps, of
which there are very many hereabout.
These gentry scrape 10 nigh good iv-
ing by preying upon the pilgrim and the
stranger Few men who play poker fail to
imagine themselves skillful at it, and by
reason of this weakness of human nature
victims are not hard to secure. As a rule,
poker sharps work in couples, get into a
game together. and fleece their opponent by
playing secretly in partnership. Such vul-
gar appliances as marke cards and bugs
Il. e., springs concealed under the edge of
the table-are not employed, because not
needed, by the expert professional operators
who toy with the chips in Boston. Swell
blacklegs of this description, who do moth
ing else but poke" for livelihood, are
plenty here.
These sharpers will not infrequently fix
their attention upon some well-to-do citizen
who has a weakness for poker, and lay
elaborate plans for getting hol1 Of the vic
TINS cash. Not long ago two Of them went
to a certain wholesale coal dealer here III
town, whose sporting inclinations are wei
known, and put him up to a little dodge by
which, as they said, he could pick up few
thousands without any risk at all, at the eK-
pense of guieleas old farmer in an out OF
the way Vermont village. This rural jay,
the friendly gam blers averred, had fabu-
lous amount of wealth stored up, which
might readily be gotten possession of 10y
any clever poker PLAYER who would lure
| him into q game. The coal dealer, they
| thought, was the very man to work the
! little plot without possibility OF detection,
| owing to his standing in the business COM
munty He could employ simply fair
means for skinning the aged capitalist, and
the pecunary results might e divided sub
sequently between the winner and the gen
tlemen who put him on to the quarry.
| The coal dealer was fiattered by this
tribute to his skill at draw" He entered
into the scheme with enthusiasm, paid a
visit to the unsuspecting farmer, an
found the old man quite ready to be gulled.
They played for three days and three
mig It's, and at the end Of the tine the seller
of the dusty diamonds was out just SO 700.
He had no more money, and so he went in
goriously home. Having gone for wool, he
came away shorn. AID the innocent agri-
culturisti Oh, he is better known as
Smiling jake the king pin of Boston's
poker experts. he STOOD ia" with the two
swnders, who suggested the scheme to the
coal dealer, and mis- disguise as an cd
down east farmer is said t. have been sim
ply immense. AS for the person VINO
suffered, like Brer Rabbit, he "ain't sayin
nutfin.n What, indeed, could he say"