The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-06-22
THE Bitter WAS BITTEN
The Story of Gambler Foshay's Merry
Play.

brain and ind out what he would do
/ If he found himself ia exactly that pO-
/ sitiOn. OF course, the man who should
/ take advantage of it would be theoret-
/ ically going outside of the strict ethics
/ Of the game. There's no chance to dis
/ pute that
"He would be just as guilty of sharp
] practice as il he had seen his antagon-
I lists hand, and was betting against it
knowing that he could beat it. But
my own private opinion is that there
I isn't one man in thousand who would
not take that ace and play it for all
/ il was worth.
"One Of the cleverest plays, and Ger
/ tainly the cIeverest counter-play ] ever
/ saw, was In a game in Cincinnati "a
/ good many years ago. when Andy Fo-
shay and Billy Starkweather were fin
/ ishing a game that had knocked out
four other men inside of thirty-six
I hours.
There were six of US that sat down
TO play Sunday afternoon, and the
Windup didn't come till long after mid
night Monday. There were some good
players in that game, too, for ] was a
dabster at it in those days. and there
wasn't a man at the table that couldn't
play as well as, or better than, could.
II know I dropped something over
$500 before / was driven out. and some
of them had more in than I had. so
there must have been $4,000 or $4,000
on the table when FOshay got it all by
what 1 have already said was as pretty
play as j ever saw.
Il was watching the finish, for love
to see the game even when I'm not in
if. and I sat still for over an hour after
! had gone broke. Two or three of the
others stayed. too, but whether they
saw il any clearer than I did, I can't
say / know that I suspected the whole
of IT, but 1 wasn't certain about it till
I asked FOshay year later, and he
told me 1 was right.
He was the biggest winner when 1
dropped out, for Starkweather only had
about $1,000 Of all the money, and Fo-
shay had the rest. but they played
along for d while. winning and losing
without either side getting much the
better Of il until Starkweather tried his
great trick and got beaten.
we had called for a new deck often
enough during the game for the floor
to be covered with the discarded ones,
and even after there were only two
players in the negro had to bring fresh
cards every little while it made a little
delay, but a good gambler never allows
himself to be i'm a hurry. and they were
both afraid of each other
Either one of them could mark a
card while he was playing, or could
stack them when he shufiied. with suf-
ticient skill to do w an outsider. but
each one knew the other was as good
as he was. and they were watching
each other like cats.
"A new deck was opened. and they
both shuffied il as they usually did. and
then StarkWeather dealt. As he threw
FOshay his cards, I saw the tiniest pos
sible mark on the edge of one Of them
that looked like an almost impercep-
tible imperfection, but which might
have been made by judicious and
skillful pressure of a finger nail.
Not one man in a hundred would
see it, / suppose, but L had enough
confidence i'm FOShay TO be certain that
he would know the back of that card
again. whether Starkweather had
marked it DurDOsely or not. I kept
my eyes on it, noting its position in his
hand, and when the cards were shown
down after a bet and call. I saw that
1t was the ace of diamonds.
There Avas not much money bet on
that hand, ana on Foshays deal he
made il jock pot. passing the cards
over 10 Starkweather to deal in his.