The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1900-08-24
RULES OF PROGRESSIVE POKER.
tame Where a Small Fortune II
Needed to Play Each Hand.


Needed to Play Each Hand.
Progressive poker is u game not often
played in this country, though it is said
to be comparatively common in England.
1t is not played anywhere excepting
among those who are eager for the ex-
citenent of high play. The limit in
this game is not restriction of the bet
to q given amount, but a rule against
betting less than a given amount. To
illustrate, six men are playing, and A has
the age. He antes, say 81. B looks at
his cards, and if he desires to play he
must put up 50. Up to this point the
game is the regular one. G, however,
cannot come in by paying 81. If he
thinks his cards justify play, he must
put up "a. d in turn must put up IS,
E SIG and F $32. If then A desires to
play, it costs him $63 in addition to the
one he put up originally, and each player
in turn must make his ante good to the
extent of $64 before he can draw cards.
In that case, 81 being the original ante,
if all six should come in and no raise
should be made beyond the compulsory
doubling each time, there would be $3S4
on the table before the draw.
1t must be remembered, however, that
each player when it comes to be his turn
to bet may raise if he chooses, though
not less than the amount he is called
upon by the rules to bet, if he bets at
all. Thus G, when he comes in, must
put up 81 or drop out. If he desires to
raise, he may do so, but his raise must
be at least 81. If he does not raise, but
simply comes in, and d wishes to raise,
he must raise not less than So. 1t will
be seen, therefore, that in case all tn
players make good, each raise made bi
any one of them means that the pot is at
least doubled. Even if some drop out, as
some would be likely to do unless tbl
game were played in Bedlam, or soma
extraordinary hands had been dealt, the
geometrical progression in the betting
makes important money to be played fol-,
even if only three or four of the players
stay in.
When the betting begins after the
draw, the same rule obtains to
raise. A player may either see the
amount put up by the bettor before him,
or he may raise, but if he raise he must
raise the full amount of the bet or, in
other words, double.
This last variation is to make it COM
pulsory on each player, instead Of merely
seeing the bet that has been made, to
double the stake or drop out. Thus, if
after the draw B should bet 81, G must
either lay down his cards or bet 81. d
has also, of course, the privilege of re-
signing, but if he stays it costs him 81.
And this doubling is kept up until all
have resigned but two. Then, when a
player has only one antagonist left, he
has the privilege of calling.
1t will be readily seen that no such
game as this would ever become popular
excepting among the most desperate
gamblers. AS matter of fact the writer
has never known of its being played eX-
cepting in two or three cliques Of the
fastest men in London, to whom money
was as nearly valueless as money ever
can be. 1t is possible that it is played
elsewhere, but the only way in which
the average man could ever hope to be
able to play it would be by making the
chips Of almost infinitesimal value or by
the exercise of such self control as would
lead him to stay out of every pot unless
he had an extraordinary hand. That
method of play would, however. tend to
make the play monotonous instead of ex-
citing, and the game would thereby de-
feat itself and nullify the very object of
increasing the cxcitement.-Chicago In