The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-06-04
IRON the New York sun.

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Money Will Win.
From the New York Sun.
Superstitions about gambling are not
confined to ignorant negroes or to profess
sional gamblers. 1t is rare that man is
found, no matter what his general, intelli-
gence may be, who has not some super
sttion about cards or dice He may not
be willing to admit that his feelings make
any difference to him, but observation will
show that he not only has gambling
superstitions, but that he acts on them,
and, however, he may ridicule his fellow
players, he has some point of weakness
i'll himself.
There are many gambling superstitions.
One of the best known is that it is bad
luck to win the first hand, and that the
winner of the first pot in poker will be
a loser in the game. Some men are so in
tluenced by this that they will not come
into the first pot even if they have a good
hand and, if they find themselves III
through the necessity of the age or jack
pot, they will throw up their hand unless
there is so much money up that the per-
centage overcomes the superstition.
1t is hard to find the origin for this
gambling superstition, which is one of the
most common. Every man recalls any
number of instances to sustain it. If he
wins the first hand he recalls that fact,
and if he is a loser at the end of the game
he attributes his loss to the winning of
the first pot.
Another poker superstition is that the
same man viii beat the same man and lose
to the same man during the game. That
Is. if A, B, G., d and Z are playing to-
gether, that A will win from B, B from
Z, G from d, d from e, and K from A
steadily during the game, so that it would
be good judgment for B, after he had lost
two or three pots to A, and so by expert
ence determined who was the man around
the board who would regularly beat him.
to refrain from betting against A as much
as possible and to reduce the amounts ne
would stake on his hands, while with 9,
whom he has been beating, he would be
safe IN being Venturesome and IN rlsklng
more money
This superstition is based on the OBJ
servation of old players, and it has the
same foundation that the run-of-luck SUI
perstition has. OF course, in the theory
OF chance there is no reason why one man
should be surer TO have good hand than
another man, and the fact that the other
man had better cards the hand before can
have no arithmetical bearing on the kind
OF hand he will have the next deal
The reverse superstition exists about
dice and matching, though here there are
Two directly opposite superstitions, each
Of which has it's followers. The school
which believes in what is known as a
change of luck" has more numerous ad-
herents, though it is likely that for another
reason these men are the greatest losers.
One of these superstitions is that the
same thing has tendency to occur In a
series of two, and the other is that the
same thing has not tendency to repeat
itself In playing roulette the believers
IN the first superstition will play the red
II the red has already won, or in faro they
will play the ace to win if it has won
once, and copper if it lost the time before;
The other school play the black if the red