The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-04-18
A MISUNDERSTANDING ar POKER.
Showing That NJ IL Unwise 70 SIT In n Gnrne
without first Learning the Ruiez.

~ HehAN W. RSNSA "" - 49,
without first finding out tho rules OF tho gamea az
1t is played in said region is liable to stack UT
against worse trouble than did the British buck
soldier who clomped into n M~ohaInmcdan joss
house with his boots and spurs on" said an old
Forty-nincra at n planked sind dinner down the
Potomac tho other day. For there's n heap OF
different kinds OF poker played IN this country
and tho worst Of II Is that the man who plays
tho kind of a game he was raised on In his own
section OF the country is always blind to the
beauties OF tho entirely different game that he
drifts into when he gets away from his own
mock of the woods. Poker is n good deal like
Injun talk. 1 can talk pretty fair Modoc Iniun
but I guess II I'd talk Modoc to q bad Siwash or
to an impetuous Ogalalla Sioux led begin TO
figure on how my hair would do for tcpcc-lining.
And there's more mixed brands OF draw poker
played around the United States and Territories
than there are Injun dialects.
II onco saw q game OF poker that resulted
pretty seriously for both players on account of
the lack Of an understanding between them be-
fore tho game started as to Just what the hands
were worth. 1t was in Vallejo. back in 81.
Vallejo was then tho hottest town in Napa
county, on account OF tho immense expectations
all hands had of the riches they were going to
mako out of their grape ranches, which about
this time became thicker in Napa than truck
farms in Connecticut. Every man who owned a
grape ranch figured on buying a yacht and going
around the Horn to New York in 1t inside of a
few years, and they we're all SO confident Of
eventual wealth that they rccklcssly blew in
their money when this grape boom was at it's
height: they thought that in a few years the Cal
ifornia ~wine.makiny business would pan out 80
big that they could afford to have n little fun
with the few thousands Of dollars In ready coin
that most of them had on hand after getting
their vines in the ground. They had their fun
all right, but the fancy.card men from San Fran
cisco got the bulk OF their cash. San Francisco
is only thirty odd miles from Vallejo. and when
the San Francisco sure-thing dealers and riflers
heard of the light-hearted skittishness, not to
say damphoolishness. of the Napa grape
ranchers, they flocked into Vallejo. and for a
couple Of years made 1t into q good imitation Of
Angels Camp-until the phylloxera and black
rot dashed the hopes Of the anguine viticultur-
lists and cleaned them out altogether.
But this game Of mixed poker l was going to
tell you about: / was in Lou Prindley's big
Vallejo faro mill one Sunday afternoon-tor the
game was as wide open on Sundays as 1t was on
week days-trying to pump q little sense into
the fool head of a friend OF mine who had
chubbed away nearly every dollar he had in the
world at Vallejo's brace games. when one of the
look-outs. who knew OF the interest l took in
"htthihS II koVu game Vi pOktT, hltuOuRn i
never played the game except with friends.
came over to where l was standing and said:
"'Lou's got a good game OF draw on with a new
man upstairs; go up and take 1t in
Now: in those days Lou Prindley-he was
shot in Arizona fifteen years aCo-was Just about
the warmest poker player on the Pacific Slope.
He ran faro games In most of tho big towns in
California for the money there was in II, but he
he always played on the level. for he wasn't a
man who cared to mix business with pleasure.
and he wouldn't have found any entertainment
in stacking the rQrda and DEALING from TIM
bottom and middle in any game that he got into
just TO enjoy the study OF percentages.
Prindley was sitting in his shirt sleeves opposite
q solid'lookinE man OF forty or thereabouts,
whon 1 was told "1 that he VI was IS The sse" ehiaf engineer 1dnSerf
OF one of the big Panama boats l didn't have
much trouble in esprins, oGt where no got hold
in those days. you know. the chief engineers OF
the West Goes, ships used TO bavc charge Of the
quite legitimate 70 make a rake OF OF several
thousand dollars every time they .conled.. for
engineers had the making OF the report Of their
bunker space and entered into The arrangements
with the ship co.lers on tho Mexican coast. II
feather their nests in this way, and everybody
appeared to think nothing of It,.
from the East to the West coest: which accounts
for his Ignorance OF the California game of
had been jabbins Prindleyy pretty I.V hard since i"s' the he
beginning OF the game: but the two different
brands Of poker played b. the two men had not
streights on the slope; and the 's!oper who has
not travelled or played poker with Eastern men
applied to the game Of draw. 'Prindiey. Of
course. knew all about straights, but he never
risft to G ass @a,S ' ihnH" amy m aaa w Es'p piaE ne n draw a
with him in his own territory ought to know the
rules OF the game in that territory.
" There WAS n big jackpot in the centre Of the
II had been sweotcned probably half a dozen
to $1,000 in double eagles. But neither man
TO he able to catch openers. 1t went
It passed 10th men snVssred f TO FOR bslf y hume
dred. The Chief Engineer dealt the twelfth
mess. Prindlcy was one OF those cool chaps who
picked up his cards one by one, and when he had
calmly ,ioited 5000 in gold into tho pot, remark.
" This hand OF mine is worth $500 more, said
the chief engineer, who was a pretty sclf-con-
tainei chap himself, showing the yellow stuff
into the pot.
Then you want to play, it for keeps. said
Prlndlcy. discarding two OF his cards.
He picked it up. looked at il for a second or two.
and then c%arefplly closed the hand up like a fan
DO your blufing,' said he to Prindley.
How about a thousand dollars worth = in
CURED prindley. Ticking that many eagles from
Thousand more'n YOU said the engineer.
And another murmured Prindley.
wow. ! had been standing behind Prindley
when he drew cards, and when I saw him catch
q pair OF mines to his three kings l figures that
It was NIL over, especially as the other fellow
had drawn one card, which looked like a case OF
flushing or two pairs. But the way the sailor
man kept hitting back at Prindley finally got
me TO guessing, and by the time he had ,scooped
out nearly all Of tho coin from his sack ! had al
most benin to believe that he had caught pat
When the thousands ollar raises had
como back and forth several times. and there
nearly $4,000 In the pot, the chief engineer,
cool rs "A mountain trout in n shady hole. emptied
out his coin sack. and found that he had little
more than 81 900 left. He showed his 81 900 to
the centre OF the table.
Call you saidhe.
"Prindley spread out his king full.
." No good. said the Chief Engineer. spread.
Ing out a sevcn-high straight flush of diamonds,
reaching for the pot.
60 Huh What's no good Hands off that
pot what the devil do You meant Since when
did a flush beat a full house Z
"a flush don't, but this thing of mine Is a
straight flush. which beats any mess OF fours;
take your fiippers off that coin,
80 Straight flush be hanged!-not ON this
side, OF the Sierras!' yelled Prindlcy. jumping
10 his feet.
The words were hardly ont OF his month be-
Tore Tho engineer. who was n big, powerful man,
had PriptleE by tn throat; Then he did u cruel
like clutch with his left hand, he deliberately