Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-02-07

Il Professional 0lvee 0ome Points RsRa,
ing 'Hls lntsrsstine Craf.

C81TAfNI1 foB ONE WHO K1oVD IoW-oAlrD-
LIMO 1ANxs AND TIR IuexY OF nxfziSa
AGAINST rHEN.
ssOSE FREQUENTLY aRARs DRAW
poker spoken Of - game Of chance, "
aid gambler TO srAa reporter, ''and yet the
definition does not apply at Ill. n ID essen
tally game Of skil at which The better player
has . certainty in His favor. OF courss, do
not mean 70 imply that even The most secom-
plishsd expert can win every time he plays,
but merely that in the long run the proficient
Is sure to come out ahead. For enc reason Il
might seem strange that % many persons are
addicted to poker, the fact being that nearly
every one finds II losing pastime. This b %,
because IL 10 the exceptional man who knows
how to play, and he wins all the money. Take
any party Of , score or moro fellows who form
the poker crowd in q club or are otherwise in the
habit of playing with one another and You will
Invariably find that in the long run two or
three Of them do all the winning. The rest
win sometimes, but in the course Of . year they
are behind. Usually those who win will not
admit IL, and thus II is made to appear that
everybody has lost. Il il well known that there
are young gentlemen in society in New York
the game il nominally prohibited, earn at
poker in the swell clubs about all they have to
live upon. Their knowledge Of the art brings
them in e. sure m income - II it were % much
bank stock.
"In the fashionable clubs Of Washington
poker is absolutely prohibited, and it is an ex-
oellsnt thing that il should be 80. When .
party Of young men get to playing the game
habitually they almost invariably carry the
betting beyond their means; 40 . result they
owe one another, the play comes to be largely
for wind instead Of cash, this in turn makes the
wsgers higher. some get 20 deeply in debt to
others that they cannot possibly pay and there
II bad feeling and final disruption. Poker will
break up almost any club and II always causes
rows. The poker dive under the name Of an
Washington, IS shown by the records of the
Police Court. In such an establishment gam
bling il reduced to its most hopeless possible
terms for outsiders. II the proprietor takes Q
hand in the game the chances are that he has
some one to stand In with him. OF course
any two player working secretly in partner
ship in . poker game can clean out the
rest Of the crowd. They can 90 man.
age 1t that no adversary can every call, and
they can raise him out Of the pot every time.
That ie called the see-saw game; it is western
invention and on occasions has caused consider
able bloodshed. For my own part, I never
could understand how a man could be fool
enough to play poker with strangers, unless,
perhaps, he was very experienced gambler.
But even l, long as has been my study Of such
cheated, though to accomplish it would require
more scientific methods than . see-saw or a
bug under the edge Of table for holding
out cards.
FOLLY OF GAMBLING AGAINST A BANK.
'srll 60 step further and tell you frankly
that, in my own opinion, there are few follies
80 completely foolish as that of the person who
CANDLES against q bank. The percentage 10
sure to beat you in q very little while. Usually,
too. players select roulette as the game to
tackle. presumably because It 10 easiest to I'M
derstand and for the sake of the wheels pic
turesqueness. As Q matter of fact faro is the
most reasonable game, inasmuch a. it can be
80 played as to make it almost an even chance
between the bank and its adversary. But its
there is hardly to be found a better investment
for money than gambling house affords to its
hackers. To start Q frst-class establishment
you want anywhere from $50 900 to $100. 900
capital. The former sum Is enough in any
city outside of New York and Chi
and 100000 is nearer the proper
mark. You must not imagine that the whole
capital of a gambling house il put into the
bank at once. An establishment of the first
order will begin each day with, say, $4,000.
If part Of this amount is lost it is made up
to SIC, 900 again the next day, and % on. You
must not imagine from what have said that
gamblers always win. I have known house to
quit loser at the end of each week for six
months. Two gentlemen OF my acquaintance
went to New York while ago and set up
small but select concern. They had $50, 600,
with which they made ten q, 600 banks. In
six weeks they were dead broke and had to
telegraph to their friends for money to get
home with.
THE wKAKNEss or HUMAN NATURE.
"There are other advantages besides the per-
centage which the gambling bank possesses
against the player. One Of these lies in the
weakness OF human nature which renders It i'm
possible for the average man to leave of bet
ting so long as he has dollar left in his pocket.
that he loses, he is anxious to retrieve himself.
He is playing with very limited capital against
a capital that is practically unlimited and the
result IL almost inevitable. Another advantage
for the bank exists in superstition entertained
by it's adversaries. People think that because
sion 1t hasn't as good q chance Of coming up on
the next turn and 30 they double their bets and
pile their money on the opposite color. In
this way a long run on color is sometimes
worth fortune to bank.
THE CHANCES OF RED AND BLACK.
"Obviously the fact is that, even though
black has turned up fifty times in succession,
the chances are precisely even for black and
red on the ffty-tirst turn. and yet It is impos-
eAoie W coHSiuco uiuct -nine people OUT OF Q
hundred that such il the case. However, you
can easily prove the proposition by small
amount Of arithmetic. At one turn, beginning
to deal, blacks chance is exactly one-half, Of
course. Thus you may represent blacks chance
through series Of turns by Is, IS, Is, Is, Is,
&c. The product Of any given number Of those
fractions represents exactly the probability
that black will not turn up that number Of
times In succession. Multiply four OF them to-
gether, giving Lie, and you discover that the
chances are sixteen to one that black will not
turn up four times in succession. They are
thirty-two to one against run of 1--WE on the
same color. sixty-four to one against run OF
six, and 80 on. But, you see. that while the
chances against the run increase enormously
with each fraction multiplied, the chances on
any individual turn are precisely equal for
black and red, the likelihood that each viii
come up being represented by a. There
never was but one system invented that would
really work against gambling bank and that
was rendered useless by the placing Of limit
ON faro. All the same, all gamblers, profes-
sional and amateur, will be engaged In the pur-
suit Of the chimera called . 'martinsals' un-
til the end Of time
Not Real Bacteria.
1T was . Newspaper man, toor' said Chief
Microscopic Taylor Of the Department Of
Agriculture, disappointsdly, to . writer for
TIE STAR.
81 thought that Newspaper men knew every
thing, and yet he brought me pint Of milk,
with = request that should inspect il, saying
that he thought there were bacteria in Il. He
saw them wigglinR,' he declared.
ssNoW that donbtAd heCvusn h.n%>,s. 49,