The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1900-01-03
GAZE or STUD f0KtR is DEAD.


often nowadays" remarked the ole
dine sport TO a Kansas city Star re.
porter, but IL had it's day. In the early
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 Sud
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 Dig In favor OF The house. The game
in its prime was played where there
was licensed gambling. Then one man,
an eInploye OF the house, dealt all the
time. played hand himself, and ran
the bank as well. This gave the house
chance 70 manipulate the cards If IL
could, it gave the dealer the advantage
OF always paying from big Stack Of
chips, and every time "A pair showed
up chip went into the hole in the GEN.
ter OF the table. Four or five fellows
could sit down 60 game with $500
apiece. and in a couple of hours all the
money originally i'm sight had gone into
that hole as percentage. IL was great
graft the old sport remarked, regret
fully.
The game of stud poker" ne con-
tinued, was played like any other
game OF poker so far as the values Of
the cards are concerned and the differ
ence was all i'm the dealing. The first
card was dealt face down on the table.
or buried This was called the card
in the hole Every mll put UP his
ante after looking az his hole card IL
he thought IL was good enough. The
next card was dealt face up. and the
man with the highest C.rd in sight led
I'm the betting. the others staying 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 drop
ped. At the end the whole thing de-
pended upon what a player might have
i'm the hole. 4 man with three aces
i'm sight was no better than the man
with three kings. for the latter might
have "A fourth king in the hole on
the other hand the holder OF the three
aces in sight might have a fourth in
the hole and a 'cinCh hand.
1T was a great game 20 draw man
on. for il he had a good hole card or
something in sight he hated 10 let 60,
so IL the other fellow was betting pret-
~ strong on a leading hand IL became
quite expensive before the fifth card
was dealt. This was "A great game for
Cinnamon in the mining camps. and IL
was q quiet crowd at the table you'd
some times see. A cowboy or a minor
or two might be playing with a China
man, a negro. and a half-breed Indian.
The soldiers used TO play it great deal
IN the towns near the garrisons.
There were some big stakes playin in
Tnese games OF stud When the whole
thing depended on the hole card things
used 70 get pretty exciting at times.
saw fellow write n bill OF sale OF 5000
sheep one night when sheep were
worth s. head. and make q raise with
the paper. The bluff went, for IL was n
bluff but he had a good hand in sight,
and e sh ok the other fellows nerve.
'The buffalo hunters used to come
into the Mttle towns along the Yellow
stone river in che spring and drink and
play stud until their hard-earned mon
ey was gone. While il lasted times
were lively around the stud tables The
game was such on apparent good thing
for the house that IL led TO the first
legislation in the West against cambl-
ing. \ 'aw was passed in Montana
making II n misdemeanor ~ plav per-
stud. The law defined the
game as being one where one man dealt
all the time and the table had hole In
n for the percentage. The gamblers
got around the lew by letting the deal
go around and letting the player for
the house extract the hole percentag re
The doom ~ stud poker came when
Montana and nearly every ether West
ern state and territory abNlished licen-
sci gambling: but. after all II men had
Ia Gamble in the company OF strangers
IL was about the best game they could
play. barring faro"