The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-01-03

simply on the strength of his beginners
hands. l started in to play with him
as l would with q man that knew the
game: But it was of no use. Stevenson
had So of my money at the end of the
hour. Not a single big hand had yet been
out, but he always had my set of pairs
to anything. A queer bit of poker came
along when we were ready to quit for the
evening. 1t was a jackpot, as most of the
rounds were, and my deal. l gave myself
three jacks and. of course. opened the pot.
Stevenson stayed. He asked for one card
and took two. l caught the fourth jack
bet the limit, ten cents, and said:
NEARLY 81 IN THE POT"
You'd better call me, for there are
very few hands in the deck that beat
the one l hold
q Just So. said he. Ten better than
oh, as you please, said I, grinning
confidently at him. And L raised him the
limit. He raised me back, and we sawed
it back and forth until there was nearly
81 in the pot.
This is pure nonsense, Mr.. Stevenson
said l then, I don't propose to take ad-
vantage of your Ignorance of the differ
ence between bluffing and playing the
hand for what it is worth. l have you
thraShed, l warn you.
. Exactly, said Stevenson, and for my
conceit and wrong-headednes deserve
thrashing. My desserts, however. are
quite beside the mark. wherefore-ten
4 threw down my hand for moment to
read him poker homily.
If you were engaged in q stiff game of
draw poker and exhibited such a lack OF
discretion as you now exhibit said l,
you would no doubt be engaged in by
pothecating your book royalties for some
20 years in advance. 1 shall convince you
of the need CT caution at no further eX-
pense to yourself. 1 call you
FOUR KINGS.
n t. 81,
to renew his allegiance to the institution
of royalty, said Stevenson, spreading four
kings out on the table before him. /
would almost as lief have won that hand
as to have triumphed at Bannockburn'
I played poker with Stevenson about.
half Q dozen times after that and as he
spent an hour or so every day after we
first played, in dealing poker hands to
himself and studying -them-he told me
this himself-he became pretty proficient
at the game: All in all. L think he got
something like $50 of my money before
l left the islands. But l am still carrying
around with me as a pocketpiece the jap
anese yen, the amount that l came out
ahead of him on the first night we PLAYED
that he gave me in settlement-for at
the time, and to some extent even now
the metal money current in Hawaii was
tumble Of American, Japanese and Next
can.
The last poker game I played was
made interesting toward its close by the
introduction of another player. very in
innate friend of the novelists, and as
skillful a poker expert as L ever saw deal
hand-David Kalakaua king of Hawaii
Kalakaua was riding on horseback from a
luau at Diamond II cad on this night and
passing Stevenson's place, dropped in for
a chat Stevenson invited him into our
little game and kalakaua's amusement
when he saw the Scotch literary man so
vastly immersed in a Decent limit game
of draw poker was intense. He mixed i'm
with us. however. and when the game
broke up at midnight he had got about ali
of the $50 that Stevenson had taken of my