The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-10-21
GAMBLING WITH SOLITAIRE.
Chicago DOft Over n Game That
Seems Easy, But is Not.

They've got a new game out in Chi
cago and the sporting element has gone
daft over it," said a man who has just
got back from the middle west. There
is one establishment out there that is
doing a Monte Carlo business at it
and, although it is away ahead of the
game, there is no let up in the number
of men who are willing to take a long
chance to carry off a big bundle of coin.
It's gambling in solitaire that the
Chicagoans are going against, and it's
the hardest game to beat and the east
est to get interested in, that I'VE ever
met. The solitaire is of that familiar
variety in which you lake thirteen cards
off the deck, and try to build up the
suits in sequence beginning with the ace,
taking every third caro- in succession
from the pack.
You buy a pack of cards, paying $50
for the deck. Then you sit down in the
room where the game is conducted and
with an attache Of the house standing
back of o and looking over your
shoulder to see hat you don't work
any queer business, o proceed to play
solitaire.
IF you win the game the house paws
you $1,000. If you can't beat it the
mousse pays you 30 Tor each spot on the
top cards of the row that you are sup
posed to build from aces up. You'd be
surprised to see how few spots most of
the players muster after they have
skinned their deck of all the plays DOS
Sible.
Il watched many game during my
snort stay in Chicago, and I did not see
the game beaten once, although I have
seen players \whO, after giving UP the
game as hopeless, counted the spots on
the top cards in the upper row de-
landed as high as $3.50, which was in
stantly forthcoming. 1 saw winnings
of 500, $65 and Whereabouts in plenty
but poor fellows hat could not muster
more than six or seven spots were too
numerous to mention.
Three times in one evening saw
one sport buy a pack, pay his little $50
and not be able to scare up a single
ace Tor that upper row. That fellow
might nave been excused if he had
jumped into the lake, but he didn't.
II guess I'll stick to poker and farce
bank was all We heard out Of him as
he left.
/ haven't played cards much of late
years. and l went in there because /
was knocking around town and didn't
care TO take in any of the theatres, 1
watched the game two nights and 1 be-
came deeply interested in it.
The more 1 watched the more
tempted 1 was to buy a deck. 1t
seemed to me that 1 could beat that
game. That 1000 to 80 was odds worth
playing.
When L watched game after game,
some of the players getting back more
than their $50 it seemed a cinch thai I
couldn't lose much. I Had two or three
decks Of cards along with me, and
the first night after 1 had gone to my
room in the hotel where 1 stopped, l
got out a pack and played the game
several times.
As is usually the case when you're
playing for fun, l came out several
hundred dollars ahead of the game
after playing a dozen hands I won out
on the first three hands. You see I
wanted to try it on the dog, so to
speak.
THE next night I was in the room
again watching the purchasers of the
decks OF cards trying to beat out that
$1,000 offer. 1 was dead next to the
fact that although I had Won put when
there was nothing to play for, I might
get an awful dump the very first time
L took a toss at the game with my
~hard-earned $50 paid in, but I decided
that if I didn't try I'd be sore after
leaving Chicago, and at last I bought
a deck.
Il walked over to the table with my
man Friday of the house at my back
n shuffied the cards carefully and
thoroughly. After stripping off the
thirteen cards and laying them down,
TO my delight and surprise three of the
next o cards I stripped of were aces.
But this was too good, and after run
nlng through the cards a dozen times
or so 1 had to give up. There were no
more plays in sight.
On my upper row of cards all I
could show up was the three of hearts
the ace of diamonds and the ace of
spades. Twenty-Five dollars. I had lost
twenty-seven.
THAI made me sore and 1 was on the