The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1899-12-30
.THE GAME OF STUD pokER.
At One Time highly Thought OF in
Wild and Woolly West.

Wild and WooLy West.
Kansas city Star: you don't see a
game of stud very often nowadays"
remarked the old-tIme sport but it
had It's day In the earlier times stud
poker and faro were about the only
gambling games in the west, and
think stud poker was played more than
faro, because no extensive layout was
needed for stud, as is the case with
faro.
There have been games Of stud poker
running in Kansas City within the past
few years, but don't know of any
now. The law got after them very
hard. and then the percentage was too
big in favor of the house. The game In
its prime was played where there was
licensed gambling. Then one man, an
employe Of the house, dealt all the
time, played a hand himself and ran
the bank as well. This gave the house
chance to manipulate the cards II 1t
could, 1t gave the dealer the advantage
of always playing from big stack of
chips, and every time pair showed up
q chip went into the hole In the centre
OF the table. Four OF five fellows could
sit down to game with s. apiece, and
in couple of hours all the money orig.
lnally in sight had gone into that hole
as percentage 1t was great graft"
the old sport remarked. regretfully.
THE game of stud poker" he con-
tlnued. was played like any other game
of poker. so far as the value OF the
cards is concerned, and the difference
was all in the dealing. The first card
was dealt face down on the table, or
buried This was called the card in
the hole. Every man put up his ante
after looking at his hole card II he
thought 1t was good enough. The next
card was dealt face up. and the man
with the highest card in sight led the
betting, the others staying in or not,
as they saw flt. The other three cards
we're then dealt. all face up, the man
with the hes. hand in sight doing the
betting after each card was dropped.
At the end the whole thing depended
upon what a player might have in the
hole. A man with three aces in sIght
was no better than the man with three
kings, for the latter might have n
fourth king In the hole On the other
hand, the holder of the three aces in
sight might have fourth in the hole
and 'cInch hand.
1T was a great game TO draw a man
on, for IL he had good hole card or
something in sight he hated to let go.
so II the other fellow was betting pref
ty strong on leading hand 1t became
quite expensive before the nth card
was dealt. This was great game for
Cinnamon in the mining camps, and it
was q quiet crowd ut the table you'd
sometimes see. a cowboy or miner
or two might be playing with China
man, negro and half-breed Indian.
The soldiers used to play It great deal
in the towns near the garrlaons.
There were some big stakes played
In these games of stud. When the whole
thing depended on the hole card things
used to get petty exciting at times. l
saw fellow write u bill OF sale for
900 sheep one night, when sheep were
worth So a head, and make raise with
the paper. The blum went, for It was
n blum. but he had good hand in
sight and It shook the other fellows
nerve.
THE buffalo hunters used to come In
to the little towns along the Yellow
stone River in the sprinE and drink and
plny stud until their hRrd-eRrned mo-
ncy was gone. While It lasted times
we're lively around the stud tables. The
game was such an apparent good thing
for the house that It led to the first
legislation In the west against gam
bling. a law was passed in Montana
making II msdcmcanor to play per-
centngc stud. The law defined the
game az being one whore one man dealt
all the time and the table had hole in
Il FOR the percentage. The gamblers
got around the law by letting the deal
20 around and letting the man playing
Tor tho house extract the hole percent
age. The doom of stud poker came
when Montana and nearly every other
western state uud territory abolished
licensed gambling, but. after all, lfmen
had to gamble in the company Of stran-
gers II was about the best game they
could play. barring faro"
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