The age-herald., 1901-03-02
ACES UP HIS HOBBY.
Why One Poker Player Prefers Them
 To Larger Hands.


 T don't want any fun hands, or fours. or straight fushes when l sit in a game, said the experienced poker player to a party of friends in a downtown club the other night "All l want is aces up. If they'll come often enough I'll get all the money around the table,
 "stnl four of a kind is a handy thing to hold when somebody's standing pat and the pot is getting bigger and bigger every few seconds" suggested another
 "I'm not so sure of that returned the experienced player. "EverY man in this party, I'll bet, has been skinned out of his back teeth at least once in his life when he had fours in his hand. 1 know have. And as for a straight flush, there isn't one out of ten that ever won any money. No, no; aces up and plenty of them is what wins the coin.
 Let me tell you of an actual record of seven months playing about year ago." he continued. We had a little club of about POO members. They were all men in the same business, and their working hours varied so that there was likely to be a little game going on at almost any hour of the day or night. Usually it was 'NAAN' pay day came, we played table stakes Even then s was swell bet. I'll tell you about what the kitty banned out for us, and you can judge for yourself how nearly continuous the game was.
 I've raked off and dropped a white chip value cents-into the kitty on jacks up or better. The kitty used to run Sl00 to $125 month, and 1t paid our rent and lights. In seven months we had sixteen ct iarht tchn at tahlP Each one was tackled up on the wall with the date and the amount won on 1t. It made a pretty wall decoration, and when the series was completed and we merged with another and larger club 1 took the record. It was enough to disgust me with straight tiushes for the rest of my life. never root for them nowadays, and if I get them 1 bet a chip and expect little more than the original pot. But give me aces up and I'll throw in the limit before and after the draw.
 '"The average amount of money won or each of those sixteen straight fiushes was S632. And this was in game that was brisk all the time, with the limit never lower than 30 cents, and with an average of six playing all the time. Why, in a table-stake game one night. when one oi those straight flushes won 30 cents. 1 took a jack pot with $S4 in it on my little old aces up.
 When we had all the hands on the wall after seven months, there were some curious things shown by the record. Oi the sixteen straight hushes the second that came out, the tenth, and the last were royals. There were seven months between the first and the last. One royal was in clubs, another in hearts, and the third in diamonds. The diamond royal won $25. There were only three straight fushes out of the sixteen that won over $20, and two of these were in clubs, and one in diamonds.
 "Of the sixteen, seven were In clubs four in spades, three in hearts, and only two in diamonds. The only royal that got any money was the one in diamonds from the ace to the ten, which won $2o The straight flushes in hearts were the unluckiest The three of them together netted only $2.
 The seven straight fushes in clubs net ted S61. .75, an average of $S.S2 apiece The four in spades won $S.90, an average o1 S2 9: the two in diamonus averaged $l4. ?; apiece. and the unlucky heart hands wor SO, 30 and 90 cents respectively. Six out of the sixteen straight fushes won less than a dollar, and one of these was z royal The other royal won S1.5O
 ''The first hand that we tackled on tho wall came out on August 3. It was iron the tray to the seven in clubs, and tho
  was s10O in sight around the table, but the man with the big hand won exactly 50 cents. The next one was two nights later and was a royal, also in clubs. Ih' winner got s7. Three nights later came another one also in clubs, from the act to the five. This was worth Sl.5O. It was August 27 before the fourth straight fiusf came out
 ..This was in clubs toa-an eight, nine ten, jack queen The winner got $2S anC ten minutes later he quit the gam broke It was table-stakes game.
 .On September came a heart hand from the five to the nine, and the holder of it got 80 cents On the same night an other one came out, this time in spades. from the seven to the jack, and it won 20 cents The next night, September [, came another one in spades, from the nine up to the king. Ninety cents was all it was worth. It was almost two weeks before we saw another. This one ap- peared on September 20-a four, five, six, seven and eight of diamonds, and the winner scooped in s3.50.
 About two weeks later, on October .. the clubs showed up again. A man held the five. six, seven, eight, nine and got s2 on them. On October 9 they came in pairs. One man showed the ace, king, queen. jack and ten of diamonds, and took $25 and less than an hour after another man held the deuce, trey, four, five and six of clubs, and won $20 on them.
 "It was about two weeks later-or November Il. to be exact-when the nint to the king in clubs showed up netting the man who held them $2.75. On De cember following somebody held the trey to the seven in hearts and won 6( cents. On December IS the seven to the jack In spades were shown and the win ner got $350 Ten days later the five to the nine in spades was held with $40 ir the pot.
 The best straight flush held in the club before we moved out was on March 6, 1909. It was a royal in hearts, and the dealer gave it to himself pat. The cards had been cut and everybody was regular.