The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-07-11
Refutes J. Pierpont Morgan's criti>
cism and Upholds the Game.

plays long with one who knows the prin-
eiples on which draw poker is based. Mr.
Morgan would not be one-two-three in
table stakes game If he played on this
theory and his opponents played under
standlngly.
The truth is that draw poker is based
on two things: First. and underlying
all the rules of the game. is the absolute
provision that each man who puts up a
stake on his hand must be on an exactly
even footing with every other player who
stakes against him. No pot can be made
I'D with a preponderance in favor of any
one player who has an interest in it. In
THIS particular 1t differs sharply from
wan street methods. and is "typically
American in the highest sense. So jeal-
ously does the game of draw poker guard
the interests of the man who has staked
his all that the play of others, If it goes
beyond his limit, has to be made aon the
side" and does not affect his chances of
winning or losing in any way
But this is by no means the whole OF
the argument. 1t only goes to show the
perfect democracy of the game. The win
ming of the pot is decided according to
the mathematical superiority of some one
hand among those that are backed In
the competition. This is again typically
American. Nothing but absolute supe-
riority counts for featherweight when
1t comes to a show down, and as the
winner must demonstrate that superior
ity In order to get the pot so the loser
Is compelled to accept the fact of de-
feat and acknowledge it as gracefully
as he may after the demonstration. Ger
tainly there Is nothing in that which is
foreign to American IDEAS"
This, however. brings us to the final
consideration of the bluff" which is all
that Mr.. Morgan takes into considera-
ton in his judgment of the game. 1t is
true that the player who has an inferior
hand may take the pot in one certain
contingency. If he have confidence
enough In what he holds to venture
boldly upon 1t, he will be rewarded for
his holiness in cases-and only in case
the superior hand lacks the courage to
remain in competition.
This is the keynote OF the bluff. And
the player who attempts to win by
SJpeShh0NtS NONAS Va ocScll at any SldBo
is the man who Is going to be called and
is going to lose for the buffer who re-
lies on deceltful methods is the one who
fails TO understand draw poker. It is
only he who has calculated his chances
well and based them boldly up to the
point of the draw, and who refuses to
give up even after he has been disap-
pointed by the nonfulfllment of the
chance he had counted on. who can bluff
scientifically. This is the American spirit
exemplifed.
In a word. the typical player POUNDS
his play first on careful study of his
chances. He follows it up with inteln-
gence by backing those chances up to
their mathematical value and no further
but when he has done this, and finds that
the draw has disappointed I'm, ne may,
II he is American enough, sometimes
snatch victory from defeat by a bold
venture. But If he be American at all, he
will not suffer defeat from the man who
bases his play on systematic deceit.
1t is a typically American game in the
highest sense.