The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-12-29
Eleven and Twelve Spots in
Each Of the Various
Suits.
EIGHT PERSONS MAY NOW PLAY
1t viii Make Things More Uncertain
Than Ever in the National
Gambling Game.

Draw poker, Americas National game
mas made its way steadily in popularity, as
n means OF social recreation. ever since
nlted States Minister Sehenck made it a
Iao IN London, years ago, says the New
York World.
a serious drawback to the general intro
auction Of the game into the parlor has
always been that the numb Der of people who
can sit into game has been necessarily
limited to four or five.
The ideal game of poker is with FIVE
players On the deal twenty-five cards are
exhausted. That leaves twenty-seven in
the deck from which the PLAYERS NAV
draw. Less than that number in reserve
Is likely to see the deck exhausted on the
draw, which makes it necessary to go to
the discarded cards to complete the draw,
very unsatisfactory arrangement.
To meet this objection and to make it
possible for party of eight to sit around
table, new deck has been made that
contains sixty. The new cards are the
eleven and twelve spots in each suit. The
new deck is known in the trade as the full
house,
A dealer near Union square says that
the new decks are selling quite freely and
that the indications are that six, seven and
eight handed games of poker will be the
most popular round-table game OF the
winter. The addition of four eleven and
four twelve spots to deck will at first
strike the player as novel and it will take
him some time to get used to such a start
ling hand as three twelves and two elev-
ems, as shown in the accompanying illus
tration.
The addition of the additional cards in
wolves no change in the rules of the game.
although it will upset all present theories
OF chances in the draw, and the card sharps
VIII have to do some new figuring. The
introduction of the eleven and twelve ma
terlaIly increases the possible number of
full-hand combinations, increases the pos
slbilIhes OF "tiushes" and ''straights," and
adds an additional and most delightful
uncertainty to most delightfully."- uncer-
tain game.
Qougherty, the card manufacturer, who
does not print these cards, said that the
objection to the new cards was the great
similarity, upon casual glance, between
the eleven and twelve spots. THE idea is
not new one" said Mr.. Dougherty, as he
produced a scrapbook made up OF leaves
from the United States Patent Office re-
ports for twenty-five years past, in which
be has preserved the details of every play
ing-card patent ever issued.
In 1876 Leary of New York obtained
letters patent upon decks of cards contain
ing eleven and twelve spots, and also on q
deck that carried the suits to thirteen,
making a deck of sixty-four cards. Six
years later the same manufacturer took
out patents on decks that ran the suits up
as high as twenty spots. The latter deck
contained ninety-two cards and was very
unwieldy. Nothing was ever done under
the patent 1876 on the eleven and twelve
spots, and the patent has long since ex-
pred.
Mr.. Dougherty's scrapbook shows that
many efforts have been made to depart
from the form OF playing-cards which have
stood the test OF centuries. Cards with
suits of diamonds, hearts, clubs and
spades, with kings, queens and knaves,
were popular in England in the time of
Queen Elizabeth.
During the Civil War an effort was
made to introduce cards on which the
usual suits were replaced with crossed
sabers, stacked muskets, crossed can
non and pyramids OF cannon balls,
while the court order was supplanted by
generals, Vivandieres and private soldiers.
These cards were quite popular in the
army. but fell out of favor after the war.
Some OF the additions that have never
succeeded are cards OF circular shape, cards
cut in diamond shape and cards with the
number of spots printed in large figures.
The most radical change, however, that
has succeeded is the Introduction Of what