Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-09-24
LUCK STOOD BY HIM.
How Square Player Won a Reputatio
Among Poker SHARPE.

| n
Among Poker sharps.
From the st. Louis Republic
DO You want a new poker story?" said a
well-known man. "Well, I'll tell you how a
little game gave me a great reputation and
made me at least temporarily hero, all
through the fact that I, by the merest accident,
got the best hand and was just smart enough
or foolish enough, as you choose to look at it
to stay with it as long as my money lasted
First let me tell you that while like to play
poker little occasionally l know nothing
about manipulating cards or playing tricks
with them. know only in general sort Of a wav
the relative value Of pairs, threes, fulls, Pushes,
straights, &c, but the science Of the game is
a sealed book to me, and am absolutely lg-
norant of the first rudiments Of the education
OF card sharp
II have just returned from trip to the Pa
cific coast. On my travels found myself one
afternoon In good big town where every
thing was run wide OPEN l am not going to
tell you what town it was, but this is what
happened to me. / strolled into large gam
bling room. one of those place where a sport
can get almost anything that he calls for.
watched the faro game for while, glanced at
the roulette game and then foated naturally
playing. 1t was table stakes and if YOU wanted
to play you called one Of the men behind the
bar and he brought YOU $40 worth of chips
Then you made the usual conciliatory remark:
If no gentleman objects. I'll sit IN for an hour
and went at it. l watched the game carefully
for twenty minutes and made up my mind it
was square and then sat in
The cards came my way and I soon had
800 to the good. Opposite me sat fair
faced young man, who, learned, was one of
the proprietors of the house. The other play
ers joked with him occasionally when he made
winning by declaring it was no use trying to
buck against the house-that's the wav knew
who he was. Well. the house wasn't in it after
l sat down. If he held threes showed down n
straight; If he held straight / skinned out a
flush, and If he held n flush my hand frightened
up. Then the other PLAYERS grew facetious and
joshed the house, but still the cards came nv
way, until stayed out of jack pot which had
about $50 in it and which the house raked in
with the remark that he could only win when
the 81. Louis man kept out The game went
on for few rounds and then 1 won
again, but this time the house STAYED
out. He still had big stack of chips in front
Of him. and was surprised to see him draw
out OF the game and cash in at the bar l Won
dered why he drew ont. He evidently had it in
for me- and as he winner couldn' under
stand his retreat. l watched him go over to
the faro table and speak to one of the PLAYERS
table and then l caught on. The house had
called for re-enforcements. and said TO myself
that II NV falr-faced friend and the faro player
came into the game l would cash in and quit.
"A moment later two losers left the table.
and the vacant chairs, side by side, were taken
by the faro player and my former antagonist
1t wouldn't do to draw out at once, of course,
and so let the deal proceed. The game pro-
crossed. After few deals the faro PLAYER
picked up his hand and remarked in a careless
kind OF way, I've got tens up He had no
occasion to make such a remark at that stage
OF the game. but when | saw the other man pass
him card knew what was going on 1t was
clumsily done, and l couldn't help smiling in
wardly at the crudeness OF the cheating. The
faro player had simply called for ten spot to
I'LL his hand, and his partner had givin it to
him. stayed out at that hand and was re-
warded for doing SO by seeing ten full on tours
shown down.
I'm the next hand big-fsted miner dealt
the cards, and l knew that it was an honest
deal. bad an ace full pat. SO when the faro
playex picked up his hand and murmured
I've got jacks up and l again saw a card
passed which l was willing to bet something
handsome was jack, felt pretty easy.
believed that he had a jack full stayed in,
but let him do the raising Before it got
around to him another PLAYER raised it, The
faro player saw the raise, showed in his pile
with the words Il tap YOU He wasn't after
moment, made up my mind that the first
raiser had threes, and then showed in my pile.
which was just about big enough to meet the
second raise. The first raiser STAYED and
the others fled. We drew cards. 1t was
my first say, and had to expose my hand by
standing pat. The first raiser took two cards,
the faro player stood pat. All our money was
up and it was a show down. The first raiser
had three kings to go with, and didn't help in
the draw. The faro player, as | suspected, had
jack full. l had an ace full. l wish YOU
could have seen that mans jaw fall. His fair
faced partner, the man who had passed him the
jack. leaned back and roared with laughter
could see that he had sized me up for a card
| sharp, and that he was amused beyond meas
IRE at the smooth way l had done him up.
An ace full he shouted. WELL Ill be =.
An ace full' 1 raked in the pot raked it off
into my hat and said: Yes. an ace FULL good.
amt it? I'm going to quit you, gentlemen, and
l did quit, too.
And here comes funny feature Of the ad-
venture. was attending to little business
for Uncle sam, and in accom- lishing my mis-
sion it was necessary for me to be just little
bit quiet and circumspect in my movements.
But the story Of the poker game was told. and
although my winning was purely piece Of
luck, was pointed out probably twenty times
day for the three days l remained in town
as the slickest card sharp in the country,
which. while it was little bit amusing, was
anything but desirable reputation for me-"
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