The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-21
He DIDN'T KNOW THE GAME.
THE DRUMMER'S COSTLY LESSONS
IN PACIFIC COAST POKER.

counts rs any via Slr1lShIS
Don't Go, Jacks Always Progress,
and FIushes Must Be Pat.
washington Letter in New York Sun.
Before sitting into a game of poker any
where near tidewater out on the Pacific
coast you'll always find it a pretty good
theme to make a few little preliminary
,rouiries of your fellow players as to the
Kind of poker you're expected to mix up
with" said a travelling man who had re-
Gently returned to the east after a tour
On the slope. Because 1 neglected to do
this myself on several occasions 1 got into
all sorts of embarrassing situations and
all colors of poker trouble all the way
from Portland, Ore, to San Diego, Cal,
and the fellows with whom 1 did little
saints at draw-aIl good people, business
men I met with through letters-put me
down as the worst jay in a game of cardss
that ever crossed the Rocky mountains.
The folks out there think were all jays
back here. anyhow, if for no other rea-
son that that we haven't enough brains
10 migrate in a body to the Pacific slope,
but they complacently told me that 1 was
the worst of the species they had ever
seem simply because 1 couldn't seem to
set the hang of the queer old game they
laI poker out in that country.
The game they dub poker out there
isn't poker at all, in my opinion. It's
hybrid sort of affair, full of fancy moves
that must have been chucked into the or
isinal game by early California vaqueros
with such a taste for establishment that
they had to tack gilt fringe on to THEN
uants and to eneircle their hats with sill
UTbatatrnV.
american draw poker by a darned sight
The kind of poker that l was raised on
The real thing, the article of draw that we
pay on this side of the Alleghanies-
doesn't take any more account of the
Joker, for instance, than it does of the
card case; but out in California they think
q mans plumb blind crazy if he registers
a kick over having the joker in the deck.
I'd a lief play old maid or grab for corn
silk cigarettes as play draw poker with
the joker mixed up in it; but out there
/ had to take the game as it was served
up and, as between poker with a joker
and no poker at all, 1, of course, accepted
the lesser of the two evils and played But
got dumped on the game for about 1000
miles of coast line, and that too, by peo-
pie who didn't have to count themselves
because they were so many al the game
The trouble was that 1 played the game
of draw that 1 was brought up on and
they played their cross-bred game, ana
the result was just about as queer as it
would be to see base ball pitcher chuck
ing up a Rugby foot ball to cricket bats
man with fence picket in his hands.
I'm not forget my first run-in with this
pocket-joker idea. This was my first visit
to the slope, you know, and, although I'd
often heard vaguely that young 'uns, play
ing draw for beans or tin tags, once in a
while showed the joker into the pack for
the fun of the thing l, of course, never
N NJ,uf al Cd holm
in any quarter of the earth could have
the nerve to inflict such a dismal outrage
upon the noble game of draw as to slap
the joker into a poker deck. But I found
out different the very first game of draw
that I sat into out in San Francisco.
1T was a four-handed game and was
the only eastern man in the bunch. The
other three fellows We're business men who
belong to the Native Sons organization,
which accounts for the weird brand of
poker they played. They played what
was taught 'em in their youth out there;
didn't know any better and thought, and
10 doubt still think, that their game is
right
Il was banker, and dished up the first
hand 1t was % cents ante and So limit
/ gave myself two rafting good pairs
kings up on tens. All of the other fellows
stayed, and the man on my right made it
a couple of dollars more to draw cards
This let two of EN- out of it, but l thought
my two pairs were good enough for 81
raise, and so l played with the raiser. He
drew one card and So of course, did l. 1t
was his bet, and he came at me on the
double with the limit. I'd caught another
king and had as neat-looking a full house
as a man needs to have in any kind Of
game.
" Five moren YOU said I, and we shut
tied the limit back and forth until we each
had about $50 in the pot. Said to myself,
I've got you beat, my boy, for the per
Centage of the game is way against your
holding tours against my full hand, es-
pecially on the first clatter out of the box,
and, even if you've filled those two pairs
of yours-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 reasoning, the kind
of reasoning that has kept me necktie and
peanut money ahead of the game anyway
for twenty years or So and l 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 III
skate in my little five and call YOU
I'VE each had about $50 in the pot then.
Il spread out my three royal gentlemen
topping the pair of tens, and was just
about to make some good-natured crack
about getting a hoe to scoop in my win
nings on the first hand when he spread
out his hand and raked in the pot with
smile His hand consisted of a pair OF
aces up on pair of skies and the joker.
What the dickens are you doing
there? 1 asked him when he raked in the
pot. Can't you see it's misdeal? / for
got to take the joker out of the deck
'Misdeal nothing he said, still smil-
Ing. You had a good hand all right, but
aces beat kings, you know, anywhere
from Tuolume to Tucson.
Yes said I. but you've only got aces
I'd. and I've got full hand, kings up, and
it's a misdeal, anyhow
We'll, they all looked at me like they
thought l ought to be in a lunatic .asy-
lum.
'Misdeal? said my friends who had
swped the pot What the deuce are you
giving us, anyhow? | caught the joker on
the draw, and it just filed my hand-three
aces and a pair of skies. Don't an ace-full
beat a king-full in that desolate Atlantic
coast region you hail from@
w., ,,,oau van call Joker aQp2