The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-06-04

has just won, and the ace to win if it lost
the preceding turn.
An old gambling superstition is that the
turning around of his chair by player
reverses the luck. This superstition ex-
tends to the position of the seats,
some of which in a long game Of
poker become known as lucky seats
and others as unlucky seats. 1t is a
frequent thing for one player to ask an
other player to change seats with him or
even to offer money for the exchange.
Much more often is it the case that a
man waiting to come into poker game
when one of players drops out will delay
his entrance until a lucky seat is vacant.
A rarer superstition is in regard to the
performance of ceremonies or lamentations
| over the chips. There are men who think
| that kissing chip before they put 1T into
| the pot will make the chip come back to
| them, bringing the rest OF the pot with it..
| Many men believe in the efficacy of cash
money to change their luck. When the
stack of chips which was first issued to
| them is exhausted they will take money
| out of their pockets and put it on the
| table instead of getting another stack of
| chips 1t may be a good cash game, but
! that does not affect Misrepresentation, which
| is as common in gambling houses as in
| private poker games. The tendency to
| play poker on wind combats this super
| stition, for it is evidently not to mans
| advantage to put in cash amount when
| the others are putting up promises, but
| even in such a case the superstition oc-
| casionally prevails.
Men who match or toss coins have
| gambling superstitions of all kinds. There
| is the man who always wants the other
man to say what he will do instead of de-
| Gliding himself; then there is the man
who believes that more bills have even
| than odd numbers, and the man who be-
| lieves that tails come up more often imam
| heads. They are less numerous than the
man who is willing to let anybody try to
match him, but will not himself take the
| initiative in matching.
| There is some force in this last men
| toned superstition, which is taken from
| the observation of the games in regular
| gambling houses. 1t is a popular belief
| that a machine will always beat a man.
| Thus it is gamblers axiom that if in a
machine there are an indefinite number
of balls, half of them bearing odd and
| half even numbers, or half Of them red
| and half black, with mechanism
which, irrespective of the color or
number, will drop out one ball
at a time, the machine will eventually
| beat the man who bets on the color or
number of balls. 1t is belief in the vir-
| tue of mechanism over the personal equa-
| ton which exists in every man more or
| less The same thing applies to the hui
man matching machine that offers to bet
against any even proposition the other
man May make. He will put down the
coin and offer to take any proposition the
other man may make about it, but he will
| decline to make the proposition himself
| He puts himself in the position of the
| man who runs a roulette wheel or faro
| table, and who takes all the bets, no mat
ter what they are, provided the amount
| is not beyond his limit.
Betting on case cards is as even thing
as matching. 1t is as even a form of
| gambling as is known, for there are no
! odds either way, and no percentage for
| the game. Yet it is claimed that the men
who bet on case cards, and thereby elimi-
nate the mathematical percentage of the
| game, are really the men who lose the
| most money, for they cannot eliminate
! the personal equation which, according
| to this superstition, is always loser when
| it runs against the. machine. The believ-
! ers in this superstition point to the great
| number of gamblers who have lost money
| PLAYING against their own games. They
| saw that if one man will sit down on one
| side of a faro table and bet only on case
| cards he will lose to the dealer, while if
| they reverse places the original dealer
| will lose to him. BY this 1t is meant
that the tendency is for the man who