Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1901-06-27
DREW THE DEUCE.
How Yankee Poker Player Trusted
to Luck and Won

old game" said a well-known gambler
in the back room of a Sixth avenue
restaurant a few nights ago, reminds
me of the nerViest man and the
nerviest piece of play | have ever
seen at the green-top table. | mean
the rule about taking face cards in the
draw. In all the games I've sat in for
the last six months the house rule has
been that you take all the cards com
ing to you, faced or otherwise. The
way learned the game, if your card
was faced, you had to take another
after the rest had been helped
"The man was a Vermont Yankee.
Never was very strong as a scholar,
he told me, but managed to get
through the local academy and
entered Wesleyan college, on the
Connecticut river Frank Batcheller
learned lot of things there that nc
didn't know before, and among them
| learned to count the spots on the
pasteboards. His mates there
christened him Old Dan Spicer, be-
cause of very peculiar drawl he had,
| and tho name stuck
"He didn't 40 much as a student
and landed as a clerk in Chaffee's
hotel, in Middleton, where he had
| passed a good many of his college
| days. The boss, old George Chaffee,
sort of took pity on him. and as he
was wei known at the college, took
him as a drawing card for the under
| graduates.
1T was there that Old Dan Spicer
got the start which finally landed him
in New York as free lance and
general sporting man.
"The play l want to tell about
happened in a private room in a
Broadway hotel about five years ago
There were six men in the game and
three Of us looking on.
For the first hour there was pretty
even play Both the drummcrs were
doing well. One had run his stack up
to $50 and the other had about $40 in
front Of him. The horse owners were
both losers, because with what was TO
them a small limit they could not wait
for hands and tried to force their LUCK
One Of them was SIS to the bad ana
the other, whom they called Sam. had
bought twice and had about $50 in
the game.
Again one Of them proposed table
stakes and as the drummers were
feeling good they raised no objections
Each man went down into his pocket
and brought his stake up to $50.
"Tho play liyened up bit, but
BatcheIler, or Dan, as they called him,
was losing, The play that I'm telling
about took place very soon after the
table stake game began. Dan had
just dealt and everybody in for ST
On the first deal no one opened On
the second deal the first two passel
and the man on Dams left opened the
$l2 pot for $40. Dan skimmeted of
his cards and came in and two others
did likewise. When it came to the
dealer he raised $40 There was over
500 in the pot. The opener looked
his cards over carefully. | could see
then from where | was standing that
he had three queens. He studied a
moment, evidently thinking about
another raise, but he either weakened
or wanted all in, for he merely stayed.
When Dan lifted his hand | saw
that he had 3, 4, 5, 6 of spades, with q
pair of flves. Without hesitation he
raised another $40 and two of the men
dropped. The dealer, who had made
the first raise with aces and tens
stayed and so did the man with the
three queens The three-queen man
drew down to his hand, two cards,
Dan asked for one, but just as it was
beng passed to him the three-queen
man, one of the horse owners, reached
for his cards and it struck his hand.
falling face up on the table. 1t was
the seven of spades.
Do l get that card or not?' asked
Dan, without a sign of anxiety Ac-
cording to the rules of those days he
aid not get the card, and as soon as
the dealer said to Dan turned it over
ana threw II into the discards. The
dealer thought long time, evidently
a little frightened by the two-card
draw He finally decided to take
chances on his aces up and drew one
card. Then he gave Dan the next one.
which he slid in among the other four
without looking at it.
THE opener bet S.. The three.
unnRp 2