The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1898-01-22
hDEFORE sitting into a game of

DEFORE sitting into a game of
ID poker anywhere near tidewater
out on the Pacific coast you'll always
find it a pretty good scheme to make a
few preliminary inquiries of your fell
low players as to the kind of poker
you're expected to mix up with" said
a travelling man who had recently re-
turned to the east after a tour on the
slope. Because l 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
stunts at draw-all good people, bust
hess men l met with through letters
put me down as the worst jay in a game
of cards that ever crossed the Rocky
mountains. The folks out there think
we'reall jays back here, anyhow, fforno
other reason than that we haven't brains
enough to migrate in a body to the Pa
cific slope, but they complacently told
me that l was the worst of the species
they had ever seen, simply because l
Couldn't seem to get the hang of the
queer old game they call poker out in
hat country.
The game they dub poker out there
isn't poker at all, in my opinion. It's
a hybrid sort of affair, full of fancy
moves hat must have been chucked
into the original game by early Cali
fornia vaqueros with such a taste for
establishment that they had to tack
gilt fringe on to their pants and encir-
Gle their hats with silver cable. What
ever they call it, it's not American draw
poker by a darned sight. The kind of
poker that l was raised on-the real
thing, the article of draw hat we play
on this side of the Alleghenies-doesn't
take any more account of the joker, for
instance, than it does of the card case;
but out in California they think 4 mans
plumb blind crazy if he registers a kick
as lief play old maid or grab for corn
silk cigarettes as to play draw poker
with the joker mixed up in it; but out
there 1 had to take the game as it was
served up, and, as between poker with
n Joker and no poker at all, /, of course,
accepted the lesser of the two evils, and
played. But l got dumped on the
game for about 1000 miles of coast
line, and that, too, by people who didn't
have to count themselves because they
were so many at a game. The trouble
was that l played the game of draw that
] was brought up on, and they played
their cross-bred game, and the result
was about as queer as it would be to
see a baseball pitcher chucking up a
Rugby football to Il cricket batsman
with a fence picket in his hands.
"Illnotf orgetmy rstrun-in with this
poker-jokerid ea. This was my first visit
to the slope, you know, and, although
Tdoften heard vaguely that young 'uns,
plaving draw for beans or tin tags, once
in awhile showed the joker into the pack
for the fun of the thing, l, of course,
never dreamed hat rational adult hu-
man beings in any quarter of the earth
could have the nerve to infiict such a
dismal outrage upon the noble game
of draw as to slap the joker into a poker
deck. But l found out different the
very first game of draw that l sat into
out in San Francisco.
1T was a four-handed game, and ]
was the only easterner in the bunch.
The other three fellows were 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 put there; didn't know any
better, and thought, and no doubt still
think, that their game is right.
u was banker, and dished up the first
hand. 1t was 25 cents ante and five dol
lars limit. 1 gave myself two rafting
good pairs, kings up on tens. All of the
other fellows stayed, and the man on
nv right made it a couple of dollars
more to draw. cards. This let two of
'em out of it, but L thought my two
pairs were good enough for a two-dollar
raise, and so 1 played with the raiser.
He drew one card, and so, of course, did
/. 1t was his bet, and he came at me on
the double with the limit. I'd caught
another king, and had as n~eat-looking
n fuII house as a man needs to have in
any kind of a game.
Five more'n you,' said I, and we
sbuttled the limit back and forth until
we each had about $50 in the pot. Said
I TO myself: I've got you beat, my
bow, 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 filed those two pairs of yours