Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-10-02
WAS A PLAIN CASE
OF POKER LUCK

1.-THE recent renewal of the effort
TO rid the ocean steamers of the pro-
fessional short card-players reminds
me of a poker incident that occurred
on one of the big liners in the fall of
'92," said a New Yorker who had done
n good deal of transatlantic voyag-
ing. The passenger list, owing to
the lateneSS of the season. was not
over full, and on the first day out
there were only a few small games in
the card room, most of them, appar-
emily. between men who knew each
other quite well.
Things began to liven up in the
card room on the second day out and
the chaps who didn't appear to know
anybody got together in four, five and
siX-handed games of poker. One of
the siX-handed games of draw was
the storm center of the incident thai
started to tell about.
Il was one of the players in that
game. l was acquainted with two of
the players, but the other three We're
strangers to me. One of them | knew
was well-known New York politi-
clan and contractor. and another was
acquainted for years.
Zone of the three strangers was q
foreign-looking chap with a bronzen
skin, who spoke with slight French
accent. Another was a well-groom-
ed Englishmen. whose manners were
fine. and who invariably spoke in =
very low tone of voice.
''The third stranger was young
American, who wore full beard and
drank rather literally of cham
payne during the play. He occasion
ally let fall the remark that he WAS a
Californian and it was, of course, up
to the three of us who knew eaIh
other to take his word for il.
I'VE went at the game bit before
luncheon on the third day out, and
from the beginning of the seance the
three strangers annexed the bulk of
the money. None of them appeared
to be particularly skillful in hand
ling the cards.
THE man who spoke with a slight
French accent seemed, indeed, to be
good deal of novice at the game.
The well-bred Englishman was rather
awkward in his handling of the paste
boards. and made frequent misdeals.
besides constantly dropping punches
of cards on the deck while shutting.
The bearded young fellow, who said
he was from California, played just
about a fairish sort of a game of
draw.
Nevertheless, the three of them
got the money, and they got it so
steadily that it looked bit odd, to
say the least. Every time one of the
three of us, who knew each other.
got a good hand, one of the three
strangers would be dead certain to
pick up or fill a better one, and
this sort of thing went on so uninter-
mittently during the entire days play
it did surely look queer.
81 think the three of us, who had
previous acquaintance with each 9th
er, became simultaneously suspicious,
for, along towards the close of the
sitting, when the three of MS were
all to the bad, and it seemed impos-
sible for any of us to out-draw any
of the three strangers, we found our
selves exchanging glances. l think.
too, that the three of us noticed vir-
tually at the same time, that the
three strangers got the biggest hands
when one or the other of them was
doing the dealing.
when shortly before midnight, we
quit play, the three of us got togeth-
er and did little talking among our
selves. We agreed that we had been
up against brace game, and each of
us declared the belief that the three