The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-01-18

PROBABLY more stories rlfe about this par
ticular game than almost any other sub
1ect, because, as matter of fact, poker
brings into play about every emotion that
is common to humanity. When you play
poker with a man all of his characteristics
are brought at once into bold relief. You
can tell whether he is brave or cowardly,
whether he is mean or generous, whether
he is quick or slow, whether he is open or
shut, whether he is honest or dishonest,
whether he is true or false. You can tell
what kind of lover he makes. You can
place him among husbands. You can tell
to a hair just how much nerve he has, and
in short you can know him better than in
any other way.
The best telescope in the world to ex-
anime mans soul with is his pocket, and
nobody ever plays poker except for money.
1t Is gambling game, pure and simple,
and the moment the cash element is
| thrown out of it it loses all interest II
like to play poker just for the fun of it,"
says one. Il don't want the limit to be
any higher than ten cents" What he
really means is that he don't care to risk
any more money, and that he is going to
do his level best to win all he can out of
that ten cent limit. II, as he says, he
| wanted TO play the game purely for fun
ne would play it for fun, and nothing else
| So that you can set it down as a safe rule
that poker is purely gambling game, and
| if people begin by playing it for fun they
invariably end by playing it for money
The tendency the game has is to cheaper
the value of money, and the best illustra-
| ton of this is that when the same people
| play together for some time there is con-
slant craving to increase the limit.
a man who is learning to play poker will
start on a ten cent limit because he cannot
lose much, and then again dollars worth
of blue chips at ten cents each looks larger
than it does later on. BY and by be wants
to make these blue chips worth quarter,
then dollar apiece, and as his confidence
in himself increases he makes the limit
larger. One of the strangest facts in poker
is that the more man loses money the
more his confidence in himself increases.
And this is the most potent force that aids
the professional sharper to fleece his vic
tim.
There are stories without number of the
peculiar fascination of the game-how one
game has been carried on for days together,
how meals were forgotten, etc. But one
|
messed l saw last winter in an Arkansas
hotel. One rainy afternoon six men got
together in a game of poker They
had been playing for some little time,
and had been in the habit of changing
around from room to room, so that each
member of the party was in turn host.
In the last room of the corridor of the sec
ond aoor of the hotel there was a sick man.
The room next to this was occupied by one
of the players, who on this particular day
acted as the host.
| The game began early in the afternoon
and the chips ratified merrily. There was
transom over each door, which made
sounds more audible. Very soon it be-
came evident to the players that the man
next door was pretty sick. They could
hear him groan. The doctor came, said
the man was dying, but the game next
door never tagged. / stood in front of the
rooms, and heard the groans of the dying
man in one room and the laughter and rat
tie of chips in the next room. Finally one
of the players, who had a wife in another
part of the hotel, got up and cashed in his
chips. Gentlemen" said he, 'Pve had
enough. Pm pretty tough, but this is
more than 1 can stand" Not long after
this the sick man next door, in poker par
lance, "cashed in his chips" but the game
| went on.
To change the train of thought.
The other day gentleman told me of a
little game of draw he was in not long ago
There were four Of us in it," said he,
land the dealer was stranger to me- One
man held four twos, the dealer held four
ives and held four threes 1t was a
mighty interesting situation, I can tell
you. and the man who held four twos
dropped everything he had"
what did you doS' asked.
"Oh," he answered carelessly, II dropped
out" Tom MASON.