Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1895-06-12
POKER LIKE A WOMAN
THIS is THE WAY A WRITER SIZES
UP THE NATIONAL GAME.

Both Are Fascinating-Th Three I'm
portant Things In the Game.
"Do you know anything about the
game Of poker?" I asked of friend.
"Just enough to stay out of it, said
he
There is q curious unanimity of mod
esty about poker, especially among those
who know something of its destinations.
never saw an old poker player who
claimed to be familiar with the game.
Poker is something like woman-the
longer you know her the less you know
her and understand her. That is to say,
familiarity with poker, instead of breed
ing contempt, inspires that respect which
waits upon uncertainty and attends the
nnknowable. The best poker players are
married men. The oftener a man is
married the more modest he is about
"sizing up" womankind. He loses con-
fidence in his own Judgment of human
nature. He becomes wary. He lies in
wait, never thoroughly satisfied in his
own mind as to what will turn up next
never absolutely certain whether over
against him is ace high or royal flush
-"bluff" or "a dead, lead pipe cinch. I"
I hope no lady-especially married
lady-wil read this. 1t is no desire Of
mine to raise the ante on their possibili-
ties. This out of sincere regard for my
sex.
It is only the young and inexperienced
who know all about women. 1t is only
the fresh young amateur who knows all
about poker. And, like the man who
Btaggers up against a roulette wheel for
the first time, this sort of daring not in
frequently wins where ripper experience
and caution quit the loser. Everybody
has heard of the innocent who steps up
and plants 81 or so on the winning 90
and calls the turn on the last cards out
of the box on the first deal-while the
expert, with or without system, is con-
tent with odd or even or plays the seven
open and unostentatiously coppers the
ace. So the same inexperienced player
will sit down at poker and for time
battle the wit of the keenest card sharp.
His very ignorance of the rules of the
game protects him.
Poker has been defined by cynic as a
game at which one friend sits down to
rob another. For the man of wisdom not
a gambler will not rashly engage with
strangers or tempt tickle fortune with
professional players. He must therefore
confine his speculation to his known
acquaintance and friends. Notwith-
standing the apparent solidity of this
definition, it is not very difficult to find
men willing to be robbed, so they enjoy
the opportunity of holding up the other
fellow. What is commonly known as the
"gentleman's game is usually made
up of amateur sports and a sly expert or
two worked in to leaven the lump. Men
who make living by cards affect the
gentleman game" about the hotels
and clubrooms, the real gentlemen be-
ing their lambs for the shearing The
professional game, strictly as such, is al
most unknown. In these times of anti
gambling laws every hotel in the city
has become gambling house, poker be-
ing the ruling game. Go through any
down town hotel during the summer
when doors are ajar and you will find
scores of games in full blast.
There are three things of importance
besides knowing the game-cards, cour-
age and Judgment of human nature. The
last is the greatest of all. The ability to
read the human countenance-to cast
the probable value Of q futter Of an eye
lid, to detect the slightest tremor of a
muscle, to accurately gauge the intona-
tion Of a voice-these are requirements,
and to be able to do all of these with
each and every new opponent would be
perfection. Men are very different, and
no two men at poker Can be measured by
the same standard Il to study man is
the proper study of mankind, poker is
the greatest school ever invented.
Theoretically four aces beat any lesser
hand held against them. As an interest
ing fact, perfectly familiar to every lover
of the game, no hand at all is necessarily
winner, the outcome largely depending
upon the nerve and Judgment of the
player A pair of deuces and royal
flush of nerve have been known to work
WOuu6IS. lucI0 10 W llclO tll6 lUul COlICC
in. You can count safely ON nothing
except of course that the other fellow
will "do' you if he gets an opening.
Just keep your eyes on him. If you have
an eye in the back part of your head,
too, it will be of great assistance.
Never presume ON human honesty in
a game Of poker. 1t will save hard feel
ings, if not money. The man who is the
soul of integrity in ordinary business
will turn you down in a horse trade and
do you up at poker without twinge Of
conscience. The essence of poker skill
lies in deceit-and the more deceitful
you are the more likely you will be to
come out ahead.
Women make good poker players, but
never play any game with money in it
with woman. She can't help cheating,
and when you catch her at it you cam It
punch her in the nose or kick her out.
When a man can draw one card, with
fours in hand, with exactly the same
impassive cOuntenance or expression of
diffidence he will wear in drawing to a
bob tailed flush, he will have almost
mastered the art of poker. There is but
one higher step, and that is to be able to
read such face correctly.
In poker checks or any other promises
don go. 1t is C. o. n-cash on the nail
Nobody of experience of the game will
trust anybody who plays it. That is an
other beauty of the institution. You just
shake off all moral obligations and meet
every man on the dead level of COM
mon humanity. A mans check or word
of honor may go for thousands in Wall
street and be no good at poker. Cash is
q necessary rule of the game. If you
haven't cash and cash to spare, you'd
better stay out of it. Better to stay out
nyhow.-New York Herald
A Clever Solicitor.
Mr. Benjamin James was solicitor.
He was clever man, and he was also q
clever solicitor. When he had case in
hand. he either lost it or else he WON'T.
Sometimes it was the one way and
sometimes the other.
But it was usually the former.
As there were two possibilities to the
conclusion of any action, so he had two
forms of announcing the results to his
clients.
IF he was sucoeccf1l la xU7,ota.