Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-09-01
THE LAST DAYS OF
HARRY ALBRO

George AlbrO, once known as the most
scientific poker player in the world, lives
retired among the orange groves of Po-
mona valley, in southern California.
He is one of the scant few professional
gamblers that ever got together a for
tune in cards and kept 1t. He was born
in Philadelphia in 1888 and was a famous
i poker player in Washington before he
was %. He taught the Prince of Wales
the principles of poker, and in 1870, when
Gen. Phil Sheridan was In Paris, he was
asked by the general to inform no less
a parsonage than Napoleon III the mys-
teries of the great American game.
I 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 babe farewell
to the green table and the clicking chips.
He won't even play friendly games Of
whist nowadays.
! Il learned my first card games in East
Philadelphia 43 years ago." said Mr.. AL
bro as he sat beneath the shade of an
orange tree and inhaled the odor of
clumpS of roses. Il showed an aptitude
for cards, and when 1 went to Washing
ton to be a page in the house Ga place
secured for me by Thaddeus S%tevens). l
saw the finest players of poker and faro
there were anywhere. I have watched
Hill and Samuel J. Randall play poker
many a time,
Yes, I have laid by some money, but
if l had never had a good sister, who
made it a point to beg me every time
she saw me through some years to in
take a solemn vow never to sell or
mortgage any part of it, I should nave
been dead broke, like every man I lave
ever met around the green cloth.
Il 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 I was above such nonsense
I but since w retired from the profess
sion II 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 super
stitions possessed me and I didn't know
it. The most common superstition
among all professional gamblers is that
it is bad luck to win the first hand, and
that sure as fate, the winner of the first
pot in poker will lose the game.
For years I've kept out Of the first
jackpot in the game to the best of my
1 ability, and when I've been forced in it
and won, I've thrown up my hand for
half an hour or so until the bad luck
has gone away. A common superstition
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 invites ill luck.
I knew a man, Harry Parker, the great
est 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
coin stakes.
II know that I myself had a six days
run of wonderful luck knocked galley
west once by a fool Who piled a stack Of
golden eagles on top of some paper bills
at my side. The most common supers'
ton the world over-you see that I ad-
NIT it is a superstition, but I believe in
it just the same-is that turning around
in ones chair reverses the luck. This
belief extends to the position of the
seats, some of which in a long game Of
poker become known as lucky seats and
others as unlucky seats. It is common
for one player to ask another player to
change seats with him. I've seen many
a man pay money, $40 or $50, for an ex-
change of seats in a big poker game.
Everyone knows how some gam
blers will kiss a chip before they nut it
in a pot or toss it on a faro board to
WOO the Goddess Fortune to that bet.
Hundreds of men believe that an Occa-
sional cash bet in place of chips invites
luck, and I've known even so intelli-
gent a man as Senator WOlcott Of Color
ado to believe that he brought success
to his play at a critical moment by put
ting golden coin on the table when the
others in the game put up chips"
what was the biggest game you ever
saw east or west?' Albro was asked.
"Oh, / can answer that quick" said
Albro, "for it was a wonderful game that
I happened to witness one night in Vir-