The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-16


man needs to have in any kind of a
game.
Five r1ore'n YOU said I, and we
shuttled the limit back ard forth until
we each had about $50 in the pot. Said
L to myself, I've got you beat, my boy.
for the percentage Of the game is
way against your holding tours
against my full hand, especially on the
first clatter out of the box, and, even
if you've filled! those two pairs of
your's-which you probably haven't,
for the percentage is plumb against
you-you certainly haven't got aces on
top Now, that was good poker reas-
oning, the kind of reasoning that has
kept me necktie and peanut money
ahead of the game anyway for twenty
years or so, and I gave him the raise
back just as often as he threw it at
me.
Finally, said he, we are getting out
of our depth and beyond the breaker
line, amt We? I've got you man
handled, but you jumpers from the
East never can feel the bunch when
you are licked, and so I'll skate in my
little five and call you
1--WE each had about $50 in the pot
then.
II spread out my three royal gentle
men topping the pair of tens, and was
just about to make some good-natured
crack about getting a hoe to scoop Ill
my winnings on the first hand, when
he spread out his hand and raked in
the pot with smile His hand con-
sisted of pair of aces up on PAIR OF
skies and the joker.
90 What the dickens are you doing
there?' 1 asked him when he raked IN
the pot. Can't you see it's mlsdeal?
I forgot to take the joker oct OF the
deck
+" .Misdeal, nothing he said, sill smil-
ing. You had a good hand all right
but aces beat kings, you know, any
where from Tuolume to Tucson
Yes said l, but you've only got
aces up, and I've got a full hand, kings
up, and it's misdeal, anyhow
well they all looked at me like they
thought L ought to be in lunauc
asylum.
i Misdeal?' said my friend who had
swiped the pot. What the deuce are
you giving US, anyhow? l caught the
joker on the draw, and it just MEG
my hand-three aces and pair OF
skies. Don't an ace-full beat king
full in that deso!ate Atlantic coast re-
gion you hail from?
"'You mean you call the joker an
ace?' said 1, the thing beginning to
dawn upon me.
THE three fellows gazed at me as If
they were trying to find out If L was
drunk or not.
the man | had played with, that you
don't know that in poker the joker is
any old thing you chose to make it
that, when you get it either on the
deal or on the draw, you can call 1t
anything you want to call 1t to exc
out a pair, flush, full house or anything
else? Tell you what, old man, you need
sleep. You've been working too hard.
Turn in and have long night of 1t.
II couldn't help but laugh.
"'Well' said |, you people may call
this joker-jigging poker, but some
how or another it suggests tag and
I-spy and little girls singing London
bridge is falling down to me. Why
in the devil don't you play poker with
pinochle deck and be done with it?
Come on, and We'll build card houses,
or what's the matter with playing ca
sino fer chalk or PIN wheels?'
Why. don't you benighted people
back East use the joker?
Yes said I, we do. We always
give the joker in q new deck to babies
in arms to cut their teeth on
another queer kink in the slope
game of draw is that straights don't
go. I've been catching occasional pat
straights and drawing to 'em all my
life, and l think the straight is one of
the prettieSt plays in poker In play
ing straights, if the chap across the
table draws one card, you've got the
fun of trying to figure out whether
he's drawing to a couple of pairs or
bobbing to a straight or flush, and
it's interesting work. If he stands pat,
it's up to you to determine by the
mind-reading process whether he's SIM
ply blufing or actually has a pat
straight or full hand or flush in his
paws.
well, out on the coast they've heard oc-
casional rumors of such things as straights
being played somewhere or another in the
game of draw, but you won't meet one coast
in hundred that knows precisely what
the straight consists of and what the chances
are of a mans getting a pat straight or of
filing one-ended Or double-ended straight.
As for playing straights, they've never even
dreamed of such an absurdity. l found that
out in the second game of draw 1 got into
out there.
at was in Portland, and another four
handed game, the other three fellows being
business men also. We played along for a
while without my running into any snags
sticking out of the coast game, and then l
got ON the deal four cards that had in them
the makings of a corking good straight,
Capable CT DSlUS HIlSu HI eItHST emu, IRON Hlue
up to queen, so that either an eight or king
on the draw would have fixed me all right.
I decided to draw to it just for luck, although
all three of the fellows were in and had stood
a raise before the draw When l caught my
king l was glad had decided to draw to my
straight. A king-high straight is pretty
good mess of cards in any mans game of
draw as we know draw back in these parts.
There was a heap of betting on that
round, and, of course, with that clipper-built
straight of mine, l wasn't going to let any
of on m Of
stuck so persistently and confidently that
the whole three CT them regan to regard me
as the main guy so far as thai ral was
concerned and to look bit afraid Of ne. The
last time l raised it they kind O. exchanged
looks, and the man II my left called nc.
The two other men followed suit, ard there
was a general laying down of hands. The
man at my left had three eights the fellow
next to him ace up ON trays and the 1nan
at my right three SKIES. l projected my
right arm to sweep in he good r0t
after spreading out my king-hgh straight.
Hold up there!' they all yel!sd at me at
once. What's all this? What are you trying
to do-hypnotize us" And the man who had
laid down his three Fights made a reach for
the pot.
1T was now my turn 10 think the whole
three of EN- looney.
that you three people can't p9rceiTe that I've
got a 'king-high straight?
:" Straight said the man with the three
Fights Straight be damned You've got one
king up on nothing. How old are you any
how-seven? Straight? Listen to him?
And the three of EN- gave me the hoarsee
hoot in chorus. I asked 'em to get around
me and pinch 1ne, because I wanted to find
out il l was dreaming or not, but they
were too busy leaning back in their chairs
and roaring like so many wild asses of the
woods to pay any attention to me- That's
what 1 got for not inquiring beforehand
into the kind of draw I stacked up against in
Portland.
Santa Barbara l got into a game of draw