The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1897-12-19
The DruInn6r'S Exp0rl0nOD
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~Joker in Poker
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N0tIG IGdI tl0tNdlEI Out Qn the dllAN
coast you'll always find it pretty good
scheme to make few little preliminary in
quiries of your fellow Players as 70 the
kind of poker you are expected to mix up
with" said travelling man VINO nad To-
Gently returned to the east after tour on
the slope. Because I neglected 20 do this
myself on several occasions J 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 I did little stunts at
drawall good people. business men met
with thorough letters-put me down as the
worst jay in a game of cards that ever
crossed the Rocky Mountains. The folks
out there think were all jays back here
anyhow, If for no other reason than that
we haven't enough brains to migrate in 4
body to the Pacific slope, but they conf
placently told me that l was the worst If
the species they had ever seen, simply be-
cause ! couldn't seem to get the hang OF
the queer old game they call poker out in
that country.
1.-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 beens chucked into he
original game by early California vaqueros
with such a taste for establishment that
they had to tack gilt fringe on to their
pants and to encircle their hats with silver
cable. Whatever they call 1t, it's not
American draw poker by a darned sight.
The kind of poker that 1 was raised ON
the real thing, the article of draw that we
play on this side of the Alleghanios-
doesn't take any more account NJ the
joker, for instance, than it does Of Tho
card case but out in California they think
a mans plumb blind crazy IL he registers
kick over having the joker in the deck.
I'd as 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 joker
and no poker at ALL I, of course, accepted
the lesser of the two evils and Played.
But I got dumped the game for aaout
1000 miles of coast line, and that, too, ny
people who didn't have to count them
selves because they were so many at the
game The trouble was that l played the
game of draw that I was brought up on
and they played their cross-bred gahe'
and the result was just about as queer
as 1t would be to see base ball pitcher
chueking up Rugby foot ball TO a cricket
batsman with a fence picket in his hands
.sI,ll not forget my first run-in with this
poker-joker idea. This was my first VISIT
to the slope, you know and although Ia
often heard vaguely that young 'uns pay
ing draw for beans or tin tags, once IN
while showed the joker into the pack TOT the
fun of the thing. |, of course never
dreamed that rational adult human beings
in any quarter of the earth could nave .he
nerve to infict such dismal outrage upon
the noble game of draw as to slap the Joker
into poker deck. But found out diner
emit the very first game of draw that sat
into out in San Francisco.
ct was a four-handeh game and / was
the only eastern man in the bunch. me
other three fellows We're business men VINO
belong to the Native Sons organization
which accounts for the weird brand Oh
poker they played They played what was
taught 'em in their youth out there dldn
know any better, and thought, and no doubt
still think, that their game is right.
II was banker, and dished up the first
hand 1t was 25 CENTS ante and 30 limit
gave myself two rafting good pairs. kings
up on tens. Ali of tie other fellows stayed
and the man on my right made 1t couple
of dollars more to draw cards. Thls let Two
of 'en out of it, but l thought my TWO
pairs were good enough for " raise anu
so | PLAYED with the raiser. tie drew one
card and So of course, did l. 1t was ms
bet. and he came at me on the double with
the limit I'd caught another king, ana had
as neat-looking a full house as man neeas
to have in any kind of a game
.sFiye mors'n you,' said L, and we smut
tied the limit back and forth until we each
had about $50 in the pot Said to myself
1--WE got you beat, my boy, for the per-
centage of the game is way against your
holding tours against my full hand espe-
ially ON the first clatter out of the box,
ond even if you've filed those two pairs
of yours-which you probaly haven't, for
the percentage is plumb against yeu-you
certainly haven't got aces ON top!. Now,
that was good poker reasoning, the klha Vi
reasoning that has kept me neckde anu
peanat money ahead of the game anyway
for twenty years or so, and gave MN
the raise-back just as often as he threw
it at me. .4,
..Finally, said he, I'VE are gettine
out of our depth and beyond the oreaAer
line. amt we? I've gol you a,.a oa,,
hut YOU jumpers from the east never can
feel the bunch when you are licked, and SO
YIN skate in my little five and call you.
1--WE each had about $50 In the pot then
81 spread out my three royal gentlemen,
tonninr the pair of tens, and was just ABOUT
getting a hoe to scoop in my winnings on
the first hand, when he spread out ms
hand and raked in the pot. with smile.
His hand consisted of pair aces upon
a pair of skies and the joker
.'.What the dickens are you doing there!'
asked him when he raked In the pot.
Cant you see it's misdeal? l forgot to
take the Joker out of the deck
.Misdeal nothing he said, still smiling.
you had a good hand all right, but aces
beat kings, you know, anywhere from Tuo-
hume TO Tucson
"'Yes,' said I, but you've only got aces
up, and I've got fun hand, and kings up,
and it's a misdeal anyhow
well, they all looked at me like they
thought 1 ought to be in a lunatic asylum.
'Misdeal?' said my friend who had
swipcd the pot. What the deuce are you
giving us, anyhow? I caught the joker on
the draw, and 1t just filled my hand-three
aces and pair of skies. Don't an ace-full
beat q king-full in that desolate Atlantic
coast region you hail FROM?
".you mean you call the Joker an ace?
said 1, the thing beginning to dawn upon
me-
.sThe three fellows gazed at me as II they
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