The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-03-02
HIS HIGH HANDS WOULDN'T WIN
TIE POKER GAME THAT DROVE
BASSETT TO SUICIDE.
Driven 70 the Last Ditch the Last Two
Hands He Ever Played, Fours ana
. Straight Flush. were Beaten on
the Reel - At n Country Game.

. Straight Flush. were Beaten or
the Reel - AZ n Country Came.
There Ia a great deal OF talk about the
prevalence OF the poker habit said a
man In tho Merchants Club who spent
his youth In the northern part Of Pennsyl-
vania, but l doubt greatly whether the
people In the great cities realize the extent
TO which the habit really prevails through
out the country. or course, everybody
knows that in the cities the game Is played
very generally. People ave poker chips
In their houses and play a social game
at home with no more pretence OF con-
cealment than they used to make. twenty
years ago, about keeping a backgammon
board and playing checkers.
-Unquestionably poker is gambling
even II you buy ten or twenty chips for a
cent. but this home playing is a mild form
of the vice for the most part, and gambling
does not seem to be considered os wicked
of itself, as our grandfathers believed II
10 be.
sThen, there Is real poker played at the
clubs and In the gambling houses IL
isn't the showdown game Of penny-ante,
ten-cent limit, that mothers and fathers
play with their children, but real. live.
North AmerlCdH pohtI' tdbio rtohS' u
sky limit, and there Is plenty OF II. and
hot enough to suit anybody.
But IL you want to see desperate play
a struggle for blood, among men who
gamble as the Indians do, for all they have
and who meet their losses bravely. and
take their winnings coolly, you want TO
know how men play poker In the small
towns through the country. i don't mean
the mining camps OF the Bret Harte-Mark
Twain kind, nor the river towns up and
down the Mississippi. / mean the villages
In the farming districts. right here In the
East where the people are commonly sup
posed to lead godly, sober and righteous
lives; where a man is notorious II he doesn't
go to church on Sunday, and where the
women have sewing societies; where virtue
Is supposed to be the prevailing charao-
~teristic Of the community.
1T is right there, among such people
and in such localities, that the %f1ercest poker
playing and the most desperate gambling
in proportion TO the means Of the players
may be found by any one who is well enough
known 20 get into the circle OF players.
You may live among them for years and
never find il out. but II you know them
right you'll find it.
in almost every one OF those villages
there is a jealously- guarded sanctum some
where that is used for gambling. 1t may
be a room over the livery stable or some
private corner in the tavern, or a shanty
down by the river, but wherever it is the
gamblers know it and nobody else does.
The lights never show from the outside,
and no one who does not play is admitted,
but tho game goes on as regularly as 1t
does In a faro bank in a big city.
There were about a dozen men In the
town where l was brought up who would
rather play poker than eat or sleep, and as
i had the fever myself pretty badly when
Twas a youngster, i was one OF the dozen.
Tho game we played wouldn't seem like
q very big one to me now, but 1t was the
hardest kind Of gambling, for the money
that was up represented a great amount
TO each one who contributed. We scorned
q limit. and table stakes was the invariable
rule. And the men who played were all
men who would have considerable sums
now and again in ready money.
If Waterman. the keeper OF the livery
stable, sold a horse, we knew that the price
OF the animal would be up in the nsxt game,
whether he won or lost. If George Bassett
who was a farmer. had made a dicker with
some commission merchant for his next
crop Of apples or had marketed his hay and
got the cash, we knew he could be expected.
II young Keep, the clever lawyer who was
making his reputation at the county COURT
house, had won a case there was always a
chance Of our getting a share OF his fees
II he sat in poor luck. and SO it was through
the list.
Some OF the party would meet their
debts before playing, and some would not,
but there wasn't a man OF US all who was
not liable to come around with anywhere
from SO to $500 or $500 in his pocket. And
whatever he brought with him was liable
to be cut up for the benefit of the others
II he didn't swell his wad. There wasn't
any beefng, either. II was n matter of
pride with all of us to affect stoicism when
we lost, no matter how hard We might be
hit.
game couldn't go on indefinitely among
men who were playing for blood all the
time wit bout some pretty serious happen
ings, and however gayly a man may affect
TO bear his losses, such blows OF fortune
as we used TO receive at times will hurt. l
never felt any serious injury myself for
money was OF no great Importance to me
then, and / never played with a penny that
rightfully belonged 10 my creditors, but
some Of the players were less cautious, and
there were two other real disasters.
Il think Bassett was hit the hardest OF
any Of us. and the game in which be got his
worst punishment was at the same time
one Of the most interesting that | ever saw.
/ can remember the details of 1t as if It were
last night.
There were six OF us playing-Water-
man. Bassett, Keep. Rhames the store
keeper, Doc Hutchinson and myself, and
four or five of the regulars who didn't
happen 70 be heeled well enough 10 sit in
that night were in the gallery. The game
was table stakes as usual, and we'd each
put in 500. / hadn't enough with me 70
have bought a second time II I'd lost, but,
as II proved, some Of the others had con-
siderable money with them.
Tho cards ran well almost from the start
There hadn't been a dozen deals when
Bassett opened a jackpot on two pairs
and got two customers. Rhames stayed ON
the four court cards in hearts, and Hutchin-
son on a four straight, nine high. That
last fact was characteristic of he game
we played. don't think the careful player
will often pay to draw TO a four straight
II the opener puts up the size Of the pot
as the opener usually does in a table stakes
game, but with US il was the common play.