The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-08-20
TAUGHT WALES POKER
George Albro Recalls Some Big
Games That He Has Seen.
GOT RICH BY CARDS
RETIRED GAMBLER IS ENJOYING
WEALTH WON IN JACK POTS.


OF New York and Henry NJ. Damon of
scientific poker player in the world.
lives retired among the orange groves
Of Pomona valley, in southern Califor-
MIA. He is one of the scant few profess
sionai gamblers that ever got together
fortune in cards and kept it. He was
born in Philadelphia in 1888 and was a
famous poker player in Washington
before he was %. He taught the Prince
of Wales the principles of poker, and
in 1870, when General Phil Sheridan
was in Paris, he was asked by the gen
eral to inform no less a person than
Napoleon III the mysteries of the great
American game.
Albro is in poor health, and with the
fortune saved from the hundreds of
thousands of dollars that have passed
| through his hands he has hidden fare
well to the green table and the click
| ing chips. He does not even play
friendly games of whist nowadays
/ learned my first card games in
Philadelphia fOrty-three years ago."
| said Mr.. Albro, as he sat beneath the
shade Of an orange tree and inhaled
| the odor of clumpS of roses. II showed
an aptitude for cards and when I went
| a
| house Ga place secured for me by Thad-
| deus Stevens) 1 saw the finest players
OF poker and faro there were anywhere
have watched L. q. c. Lamar, Ste
I phen A. Douglas, Ben Hill and Samuel
j. Randall play poker many a time
Yes, l have laid by some money, but
| If had never had a good sister, who
made it point to beg me every time
she saw me through some years to in
vest my earnings in real estate and
! take a solemn vow never to sell or
mortgage any part of it, l should have
been dead broke, like every man have
ever met around the green cloth.
suppose that superstition will al
| ways be a chief characteristic of a
gambler It's part Of a sports life as
much as thinking. Now, I've always
| argued that / was above such nom
| sense, but since I've retired from the
profession and for the first time in my
life begun to look at problems of life
from the standpoint of a legitimate
| business man, l see how a whole lot of
superstitions possessed me and l didn't
know 1t. The most common supersti-
ton among all professional gamblers
is that it is bad luck to win the first
hand, and that. sure as fate, the win
ner OF the first pot in poker Will lose
| the game.
Avoided First Jack Pot.
For years I've kept out of the first
| jack pot in the game to the best of my
ability, and when I've been tDrced into
1t and won, I've thrown up my hand
Tor half an hour or so until the bad
luck has gone away. A common super
stition of gamblers in the far west. but
| not in the east, is that the mixing of
bank notes or any form of paper
money with piles of gold and silver in
| Yltes III luck. l knew a man, Harry
Parker, the greatest faro dealer by
| the way ever known in Helena, Mont.
to quit a game for good when he saw
that some one about the table had
carelessly mixed the paper and coin
| stakes.
L know that myself had six
days run of wonderful luck knocked
galley west once by a fool who piled
a sack of golden eagles on top of some
paper bills at my side. The most COM
mon superstition the world over-yeu
see, that L admit it is a superstition,
but believe in it Just the same-is
that turning around in ones chair re-
| verses the luck. This belief extends to
the position Of the seats, some of which
in long game of poker become. known
las lucky seats and others as unluckv
seats IL is common for one PLAYER to
ask another player to change seats
With him. I've seen many a man pay
/ money, $40 or SIC, for an exchange of
seats in big poker game Every. one
knows how some gamblers will kiss a
CHIP before they put it in pot or toss
II on a faro board to WOO the God
deSS Fortune to that bet Hundreds of
men believe that an occasional cash
Dea in place of chips invites luck. and
I've known ever SO intelligent Il man
as Senator WOlcott of Colorado to be-
lleVe that he brought success to his
play al a critical moment by putting
golden coin on the table when the
others in the game put up chips
What was the biggest game YOU
asked
oh, can answer that quick" said
AIbro, for it was a wonderful game
that happened TO witness one night in
virginia City. New. in 1870 when the
Comstock mines were turning out
prohts of $4,000 a day for Mackay
Fair, Flood and O'Brien. and gold dol
lars almost rolled in the streets. / was
called over to Gentry & Crittenden's
late one evening to see a stiff game
among the big bugs of the Connstock
lode, and l wouldn't have missed see
ing that game for a small fortune
Gentry & Crittenden ran the most
prodlga! gambling house ever known
on this continent, and I've been in al
OF them from Mexico to Vancouver and
| Boston to Honolulu.
No Limit to Games.
This firm every month set asid,
$4,000 for table expenses alone. fo1
wine flowed as freely as spring water
at Saratoga A bettor did not ask i
there was limit to the game. A spor
, n Cd
pet S2O,OOO on single card. The bank,
hackers counted their millions as. east
/ ern gamesters counted their thousands
In October, 1870, a big buffer of ;
! silver mine owner named Calkins cams
2 to Virginia City. He owned the rich
est silver mine in Mexico at that time
I and could have sold his property an
q day for million and a half He wa
r known as a millionaire in good stand
! ing with the San Francisco banks an
e bankers, and his telegram was goo
y with Mackay. Flood & O'Brien for $500.
600. The old fellow with his cOrduro
! trousers tucked in his boots, and hi
e greasy, dirty sOmbrero, and his stog
| cigars, was welcome guest anyWheT
y in Nevada. He chatted an hour wit
n Governor Nye, and after getting tw
I bottles of champagne inside of him h
: sauntered into the faro room.
: Give me a stack of thousand-dol
5 lar fish (chips), said Calkins.
y Certainly. all you want reptile
L the suave Crittenden, a nephew of tn
q kentucky~UnitedS States senator of tina
{ name.
one thousand went on the jack an
lost Calkins lost $4,000 without wiz
ming bet. He sswores and got outsid
another bottle of wine. Luck change
and at l a. m. he was $4,000 ahead
the game. That was about the time