The Portland daily press., 1896-11-14
THE POKER GIRL.
Why She Plays, When She Plays and How
She Plays.

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She Plays.
Until ten years ago poker was essentially
mans game. But the new woman has
her soft, jeweled clutches on it just now,
and it will be more than ever in favor this
winter. So a certain feminine swell tells
me.
Women are reckless at poker. No wom-
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 paradises Who cheat
ed the Greeks and TrojansP Who bam-
boozled all the old Romans whoever struck
Egypt Who systematically cheats tender,
conffding manp
In woman there is subtle vein of trick
cry, an artful knack at cozening which Is
at times sublime The same instinct per.
haps that causes 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 fill bobtail flush.
Bluff? A woman is natural buffer.
She bluffs all her life; bluffs early and
often; bluffs like house af1re. Is it
likely that she will stop at bluf1ng in a
miserable game of cards?
| There are various types of the feminine
poker player. There is the woman who
will gabble and chatter and cackle, who
will pay no attention to the game, who
will 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
i ing. She is mournful when rs cents has
been swept away; has symptoms of nerv-
GUS prostration at so cents, and actually
snivels at 81. She appeals to the stern sex
for sympathy. "Don't you feel sorry for
poor little me?" And the stern sex would
enjoy rising as one man and asking her
why in thunder she plays poker.
There is the womaA who gets mad,
sulks, throws water Oh l.cf husband 3 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 demure little
mink who knows scarcely anything about
| the game but will take a hand to fill 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
pickpockes in disguise. She looks like a
| Tombs angel But she isn't
Why do women like pokerp Men like it
for the fun they get out of it or for the
money they make. Women like it for its
suspense, it's feverish excitement; because
| it's like life. Isn't 1t? Think a moment.
In it's uncertainty is it not like lifep The
combinations The last cards you would
dream could by any shutting find thei1
way to each other get together some way,
somehow, somewhere.
! The discardsp Is it not like dropping
old friends, old lovers, and taking new
onesp 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 life
| Life has often been compared to dice
throwing. But dice throwing isn't In II
with poker. Poker is like life Therefore
the high strung, nervous, feverish modern
woman plays poker, and plays it for all il
is worth Edith Sessions Tupper in New
York World.