The Saint Paul globe., 1900-03-18
I'm Nbe Days OF
Stud Poker.

A~~~~O~~-~-o~~~o-~- ~o-~-oIN-N-NI~N-N-~N~N-~-~
''You don't see a game of stud poker
very often nowadays" remarked the old
time sport, ''but 1T had its day. In the
earlier time stud poker and faro were
about the only gambling games in the
West, and l think stud poker was play
ed 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 It's prime
was played where there was licensed gam
bling. 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 a chance to manipu-
late the cards If it could, it gave the
dealer the advantage of always playing
from a big stack of chips and every
time a pair showed up a chip went into
the hole in the center of the table. Four
or five fellows could sit down to game
with IS apiece and in a couple of hours
all the money originally in sight had
gone into that hole as percentage. 1t
was a great graft" the old sport remark
ed regretfully.
THE game of stud poker" he contin-
ued, was played like any other game of
poker, so far as the values of the cards
are 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 if he thought it was good
enough. The next card was dealt face
up and the man with the highest card
in sight led the betting, the others stay
ing in or not, as they saw fit. The other
three cards were then dealt, all face up,
the man with the best hand in sight doing
the betting after each card was dropped.
AT the end the whole thing depended
upon what player might have In the
hole
THE GAME WAS SEDUCTIVE.
''It was a great game to draw a man
on, for If he had good hole card or
something in sight he hated to let go, so
If the other fellow was betting pretty
strong on a leading hand it became quite
expensive before the fifth card was dealt
This was great game for Chinamen in
the mining camps, and 1t was a queer
crowd at the table you'd sometimes see.
"A cowboy or miner or two might be
playing with Chinaman, a negro and a
half-bred Indian. The soldiers used to
play 1t great deal in the towns near the
garrisons.
There were some big stakes played for
In these games Of stud. When the whole
thing depended on the hole card things
used to get pretty exciting at times. L
saw fellow write bill of sale for 1900
sheep one night, when sheep were worth
IS a head, and make a raise with the pa
per. The bluff went, for it was bluff
but he had a good hand in sight and it
shook the other fellows nerve.
There wasn't much chance to cheat
at stud on the part of the players be-
cause all the cards laid on the table and
man couldn't monkey with them very
easily. There was hard-up gambler
dropped into a big house in Butte one
night and bought chips with his last five
He anted away nearly all of his stack
and was getting desperate when he saw
chance to slip card from a hand near
by which had been abandoned but In the
interest Of the game had not been gather
ed up. He concealed this card In his
hand, and, on pretense of looking at his
hole card looked at both. 1t was the
one he needed. His intention was to slip
the first hole card away the first chance
he got
PINNED HIM TO THE TABLE.
Unfortunately for him he was playing
against wild-eyed desperate looking
chap who held then, for the first time
that night, the best hand in sight This
fellow was watching the other players
ike hawk and something IN the move
ment OF the hands Of the gambler with
the six cards attracted his attention He
watched the other a. moment and then.
suddenly raising in his chair, drew O. big
buffalo skinning knife from his belt and
without warning he pinned that mans
hand to the table The knife passed
through the cards underneath and stood
quivering in the wooden table The vic
tim gave a Shrek of agony, which
brought every one to his feet In the
seconds silence which followed the first
outcry the quiet, tense voice of the man
who threw the knife was heard saying:
You'll find six cards in that hand and
he was right. Little sympathy was
wasted on the gambler and lie was hus,
tied out to find doctor the best he could
by himself. He was barred from the
tables of the camp from that night and
soon drifted out OF town.
THE buffalo hunters used to come into
the little towns along the Yellowstone
river III the spring and drink and play
stud until their hard earned money was
gone. While it lasted times were lively
around the stud tables. The game was
such an apparent good thing for the
house that 1t led to the first legislation in
the West against gambling. A law was
passed in Montana making it a misde,
meanor to play percentage stud. The
law defined the game as being one where
one man dealt all the time and the table
had a hole In it for the percentage. The
gamblers got around the law by letting
the deal go around and letting the man