St. Paul daily globe., 1895-05-28
BIG BETTING.
Largest Amount Ever WaGered on
Il Single Hand in Georgia.

Il Single Hand in Georgia.
Atlanta (Ga) Correspondent Chicago
Inter Ocean.
The recent crusade against the gam
blerS, and particularly the poker play
ers, lends interest to this true story,
the details of which are known to
many of the older citizens of Atlanta.
In 1873 while s. B. Spencer was mayor,
a movement was started in New York
to erect several large cotton mills near
this city. 1t afterWard came to naught,
but while negotiations were pending a
Mr.. Coleman and Maj. West, two
Gotham capitalists, came down to look
over the ground. Both were men of
large means, Mr.. Coleman particularly
so, and both were bon vivants of an
accomplished type; high livers, high
rollers and disposed to extract all the
fun possible out of life.
Among the local people interested
in the cotton mill scheme was gen.
tleman who is now high in banking
circles, a large real estate owner and
a Well-knoWn capitalist. For the sake
of convenience we will call them Smith,
Jones and Brown.
Mr.. Coleman and Maj. West put up
at the Kimball house, which was then
only two or three years old, and one
evening near the close of their visit
sat, with the Atlanta trio already
mentioned, in the majors room. Ev-
been settled, and as time was hanging
rather heavily on their hands, Mr..
Coleman proposed a friendly game Of
poker. Mr.. Brown pleaded ignorance
of the game, but finally agreed to join,
and cards and chips were sent for:
every fellow for himself, and began
with 25-cent ante, S. limit. This sounds
harmless, but, as every poker player
knows, it is really pretty stiff game.
However, the times were flush, and
money was no particular object to any
of the party. Maj. West acted as
banker and also instructed Brown in
the mysteries of the game. For at
least a couple of hours the hands ran
small and luck, see-saWing back and
forth, left nobody either einner or
loser to any great amount.
One of those who sat at the table,
from whom, indirectly, this story came,
remembers that at this juncture things
began to grow more exciting. Brown
had learned 1.-The hang of the thing,
and with the proVerbial good fortune
Of a novice, began to win almost every
pot. The players became absorbed,
the limit was taken off by common
consent, and the ante was raised to
81, then $2 and finally So. At about
l o'clock Brown was something like
$1,000 ahead, with Coleman and Smith
the heaviest losers.
episode occurred which made the
game remembered as probably the
most remarkable ever played at At
lanta. 1t was Smiths deal, and as
soon as the betting began it became
evident that some big hands were out.
Brown raised the ante 500 and Maj.
West came back with $500 more. One
of the players, which it is not now re-
membered, stayed in, but when Brown
saw the raise and added $500, he
dropped out and left the battle to the
pair.
When cards were called for Brown
drew one, and, much to everybody's
surprise, the major asked for two. 1t
afterward turned out that he thought
o. p9AoId euo 4nq 'su94 Inoy peu 9q
be a nine, discovery which ne dld
not make until after the ante. By
miraculous piece of good luck, he
caught another ten in the draw. Brown
had four kings to go in on, and began
the betting with some small amount
S. or So West promptly raised him
$500 better. The betting went on by
these jumps until $4,000 was on the
table A great many stories have been
written of big poker games, but most
of them are purely fanciful This was
probably the largest amount ever Wag-
cred on a single hand in Atlanta, If
not in Georgia. When the pot reached
this sum West called, and by consent
the separate checks which had been
used were taken up and single checks
substituted The hands were then
shown down.
west took his defeat philosophically,
but just as the other was gathering in
his winnings the discovery was made
that he had six cards. Two, 1t
seemed, were stuck together, and evil
I dently nobody was to blame. A long
argument followed, and ended by the
hands and checks being put in envel-
opes and both parties agreeing TO
leave it to a mutual friend as referee.
A couple of days later the stakes
ware returned all around.