The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-23
Uncanny Hands at Poker That Put
Stop to Game.
THE OREGON MANS TALE
FREQUENT CHANGE OF DECKS
WAS RESoRTED TO IN VAIN.
Extraordinary Sequences, Flushes
and Fulls Made the Players Lose
Their Nerve and Quit-No Afida-
Wit With the Tale As In the Cele-
DRAFTED English Story.
Chicago Inter OCEAN,

| Chicago Inter OCEAN,
i read in a newspaper the other day
the story about four whist players-ln
this case British army officers in India
each of whom, in the progress of a
game, caught the thirteen trumps of a
suit on one DEAL said an Oregon man
'The four officers duly sat down and
made their individual affidavits as to
this occurrence, and a mathematician
to whom the thing was submitted fig
ured it out that such a thing could only
happen once in ever so many hundreds
of billions Of times. l would like to
have that same mathematician cal
culations on the probable recurrence of
some poker hands that | got mixed up
with one night in Baker City, my state,
back in 81. I've seen lots of instances
of one mans having phenomenal luck
for protracted periods at the game of
draw; I've had my own share OF that
kind of luck. But on this occasion that
I'm speaking of all four of us had mas
SiVe hands, not on any one round OF
cards, nor on any one mans deal, but
right along for a solid siX-hour sitting.
It wasn't a case of bewitc1ed cards
that some of the oldtime tinherns talk
about, for we changed the decks re-
peatedly, and almost shufiIed and riff
efforts to force them to come out in
the ordinary conventional way. They
wouldn't do it. During that whole
nights play we found that hands
which would generally be counted
pretty good and worth any mans
money up to their proper poker value
did not actually pan out one, two,
three. 1t was like playing poker with
a euchre or pinochle deck, if you can
Il, Of
draw would be.
'It was an impromptu sort of game
All four of is were residents of Port
land, friends of long standing. and our
personal checks were as good 30 each
other as pieces of eight. We just hap
pened TO be in Baker City ct the same
time and at the same hotel, and, as the
after-dark dmusemeEts Of Baker City
are not particularly alluring except
from the purest red-eye point of view,
we started this queer poker game
againg along about fourth-drfak time
after supper. The top-not2her among
us from the financial point Of view
was well-knoWn Oregon man who had
a good deal 20 do with the building Of
the Columbia river jetty. Then there
was a salmon-canner. a meat -contTact-
or, and myself The meat contractor
didn't particularly want to play, for
of weeks before in Portland game,
and he said that he felt like catching u2
before he did any more p5stebOard
He didn't have to be pressed
very hard, however, and he was meas
urably glad when the SESSION WAS over
that he had sat in.
A RUN OF LARGE HANDS.
''The Oregon game is quarter ante
InIIo 1;y7oif aud 10
game of no straiShts and 10 pat
hushes never worked its insidious wav
up among the webfeet. we played
straight eastern poker then, as we do
now. | dealt the first hand myself, aid
[ treated myself pretty kindly.
picked up three aces, which had always
been regarded by me as q pretty fair
sort of a draw fist-fuIl. l. was the
salmon man" first say, and lie played
for a dollars worth of it, the HGa1t.
The jetty man came back at him for
the limit, and l raised the both OF them
the limit.
g I suppose you fellows think you've
me out of it, eh?' said the
meat contractor, whose ante had been
pulled up this way, and then he raised
us all the limit. L dished myself pair
of deuces, each of the other three tax
ing a card each Then we began 10
q
a house, and l stayed until there was
close on to a hundred dollars in lie
center of the table. Then the settled. |
confident countenances of all three of
the other players sort OF Worrie lie,
and l suggested that a call WI uId DC
about in order.
e You'll have to do it. then they told
me in chorus, and 1 did. Ny ace full
wasn't in it. The salmon man had four
I,a bod
the meat man took down the pot with !
a straight flush. 1t took us ten min
utes to get over talking amazedly about
this proposition for first hand around |
and then we went at it again, the meat
man serving them out. | caught a Ial- |
worst hand known in |
poker; that is to say, a putrid full hand |
three cards of one suit and two of an |
other. I threw the hand down in dis |
gust just at the moment all the rest of |
them did the same thing, and then [ |
saw that all of the others had lallapa-
IoosaS, too We ridiculed the meat man |
for a while, and then the salmon man |
riffied them to deal the jackpot The |
jetty man had the first say, and lie |
gave a snort, throwing down, face up, |
a two, four, six, eight ten of clubs |
heaved the same cards, in spades, face |
up, on the table, the meat man showed |
Of diamonds, and the salmon man re-
veaied his ace, three. five, seven and /
nine of hearts. We had to look at each |
other for while when we saw this ex-
manifestation of valueIess |
sequence.
THOUGHT CARDS HOODOOED.
1.-THE jetty man declined to have any |
thing further to do with such a deck |
as that and so he dealt the jack with |
my deck. / got the first mess of five
I have a habit of picking up my cards |
IN poker, one Ny one, in order, | SUD
pose, to prolong the enjoyment in case
they are coming my way, or. vice YER
ga, to spread the miery out thin when |
he cards served out to me are rank.
The first card 1 picked up was deuce
Ind so was the second.
g Enough to stay on, 1 thought, and |
hen I picked UP my third deuce
can bluff them on these and still
nave something to fall back upon I
10