The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-11-12
TH@ POKER GIRL.
Why She Plays, When She Plays and How
She Plays

EFhy She Plays, When She Plays and How
She Plays
Until ten years ago poker was essentially
a mans game. But the new woman has
her soft. jeweled clutches on it just now,
and it viii be more than ever in favor this
winter So a certain feminine swell tells
me
Women are reckless at poker. No worn-
an plays carefully and timidly unless her
husband be at the same table to growl at
her when she bluffs and ask her Of what
she thinks his fortune consists.
Do women ever cheat Cheat Who
cheated Adam out of paradise2 Who cheat
ed the Greeks and Trojanss Who BAN
boozled ali the old Romans whoever struck
Egypts Who systematically cheats tender
condding mans
In woman there IS a subtle vein Of trick
cry, an artfuI knaek at cozening which IS
at times sublime. The same instinct per
haps that causes q clever woman to cheat
the world into the belief that she IS happy
when she is positively wretched may lead
her TO secure by unfair means full house
or ill bobtal dush.
Bluff A woman is natural buffer
She bluffs all her life; bluffs early and
often; bluffs like a house afre. Is it
likely that she viii stop at bIudlng in
miserable game of cards.
There are various types of the feminine
poker player. There is the woman who
viii gable and chatter and cackle, who
viii pay no attention TO the game, who
viii wrangle over the ante and insist that
two pairs are good deal better than three
Of kind. 1t is the hair Of such as these
that the men at the table hunger TO pull
There is the woman who whines at los
ing She is mournful when % cents has
been swept away; has symptoms Of nerv-
Gus prosrration at so cents, and actually
sniveIs at 81 She appeals TO the stern sex
10y
poor little me2'' And the stern sex would
enjoy rising as one man and asking her
Why in thunder she plays poker
There is the woman who gets mad,
sulks, throws water on her husbands shirt
front when he wins a fat jackpot from her
or deliberately upsets the table.
There are others But the one Of all
others to be dreaded IS the demurs little
mink who knows scarcely anything about
the game, but viii take 8 hand to i'll the
table. Look out for her. Her pile of chips
grows continually larger. She looks at
you with innocent, trustful eyes usually
blue eyes. She has not the appearance Of
a pickpocket in disguise. She looks ike
Tombs angel But she isn't.
Why do women ike pOker2 Men like it
for the fun they get out Of it or for the
money they make. Women ike it for its
suspense its feverish excitement; because
it s like life Isn't itf Think a moment
In its uncertainty is it not like Iifea The
combinationss The last cards you would
dream could BY any shutting find their
way to each other get together some way,
somehow, somewhere.
The disoardse Is it not Ike dropping
old friends, old lovers, and taking new
oness And sometimes you discard the
wrong one you know. And you suffer
for it afterward-
Then that supreme that delicious. that
terrible moment before you turn the cards
to see whether disappointment awaits you-
Is there no parallel to that moment in lief
Life has often been compared 80 dice
throwing. But dice throwing ism t in it
with poker. Poker is like life Therefore
the high strung. nervous, feverish modern
woman plays poker, and plays is for al it
IS worth. Edith Sessions Upper in New
York World