The morning times., 1896-02-23

r.
a game with So stack and
cashcd in hundred. I've
gone in with a hundred and have left the
table without cashing in anything. I've
made phenomenal draws, been beat out
on four kings. I've stood pat on q pair Of
Jacks and I've stood pat on four of a kind.
I've been flush and been broke, but the
best move of my life was when ! caught
one of the best poker players in Syracuse"
said n well-known SHARK i'll this city
the other night.
II rolled into Syracuse from Rochester
after a most unsatisfactory week at the
table. ! am a professional, of course.
/ don't make any bones about ii. l make
my living atit and dha:ve o takemy chances
against the best men in the business. They
did me in Rochester, hang 'em; took my
heart almost.
But heart! That's everything in poker.
The mau without heart, or nerve, what
ever you like to calf It., is no use in
poker game. j had my heart when /
landed u Syracuse and about 60 cents.
! went to the Yates, got u meal aud n
cocktail and as l leaned up against the
clerks desk, wondering how soon it would
be before | would get hungry again,
drummer appeared who had known me
in Rochester. lie gave me the glad hand,
and after he had registered asked me If
there was any chance TO get in q game
at night. | said: OF course and he
said that if / could get one man, he had
two statesmen acquaintance who wanted
TO play Il little While, and If we could
meet privately in his room at s O'Clock,
We might spend the evening pleasantly.
agreed, but where was going to get my
wherewith was a quaDdary.
II had about made up my mind to
strike the clerk for a loan, until my firm
could send me n check, when my eye
lighted on a paper weight which lay on the
desk 1t was a sample from steel house,
and it was made in imitation of a pile of
half dollars, making in all a stack that
| looked like SEQ. There! j was heeled.
When the clerk wasn't looking ] captured
it. procured piece of paper from the
clerk's pad. and going into the cloak room, l
wrapped up Mr.. Paperweight until he
| looked so natural that any bank clerk
that ever lived would have bought it for
| $1S and smiled at the bargain.
"At O'Clock l was on hand. There was
| a fellow supposed was a young drummer
in the party, who said he was ma king his
| first trip out. My drummer friend had
| brought him along as snap He didn't
| know me, but l supposed, of course, that he
was all right, or his friend would not have
| invited HMM the game. So when we were
| seated about little round table he said:
/ Let Lew meaning me, be the banker
| No one ever kicks against a suggestion of
that kind, and was made banker. l set
1 400
chips, and everybody else took $40. 1 put
| their money and my roll on a chair, and we
| began playing. i lost on every hand l
! played, and my twenty worth was soon
gone. / took another stack and remarked
| that the clerk would make me good.
! Then luck changed. l won. The green
| drummer was the only other lucky man
| in the party. He was a hard man for
| me to buck against. He beat me every
| time. Finally / stood to win $50 if 1
cashed in, steel roll and all, and I was
| inclined to complain of cold feet and quit,
| but l took one more hand.
| -Four sevcns! Sevens The very hand
| that a man told me once to play until
l died. He-that sliFii green, uninitiated
! drummer took ono card. He raised 1t a
dollar, when 1 bet q chip, and al that
| other gang stayed out. We banged away
at one another for some time. looked
| at him closely, and, somehow, he seemed
| to have changed. He didn't look like the
| weak backed drummer. He had the steely
| eye, the marble heart of a professional.
| said, eXasperated: ia like to bet Il
| little more than the limit Well said
| he, and 1 thought he. trembled, Il might
take one big bet i reached over and
picked up $50 bill which lay on the
chair. I'll bet this Blast him, he went
| down in his sock and raised me $50 There
was just $40 left on the chair, and my
roll OF steel. I'll raise you $20,' said ].
| I'll raise you,' said he. He wasn't scared.
| l could see that, and my four sevens were
| small. l felt confident that he had made
| a full house, and the money was mine,
| and called him simply because there was
no more paper weights in sight.
Give got small two pair said he,
81 knew he had two pairs of one kind,
1 and l remarked: Mine are seyens.'
| -Four eights,' said he.
"'rm broke, gentlemen, said I and l
| picked up my overcoat and left before he
| could open the roll of steel. 1 went down
stairs and told the clerk that l was going
QUITO make borrow, got out of Spwn
| on the Cannon Bali at 1 O'Clock, and
| got off at Oneida because that was the first
stop, and the conductor rather insisted
on it,"
| This may sound a little fishy, but every
| poker player in Syracuse, knows of it. It