The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-05-10
A TRUE HUNCH ~"
~ IN A POKER GAME
Instance of the Inspiration That
Makes the Successful
Player.


average citizen can accomplish with lea.
difficulty than he will find In learning tc
play draw poker" said the gray-haired
young looking man IN the club smoking
room. 4Some OF the most arrant chumpt
I ever knew could 60 through the motions
all right.
"The game is fairly fascinating in its
simplicity to a beginner, and when he
wins a few pots, as he Ia likely enough
to do. by reason of his having made q
flush on two-card draw or some other
equally brilliant play he is liable to think
that he needn't work any more.
"Of course, he gains more information
as he goes on playing, and after he has sat
in few times, unless he is a congenital
and incurable fool, he will begin TO see a
great white light. but there is nothing in
that to upset what / just said. that any
body with average intelligence and
knowledge, to begin with, Of the value
Of the fifty-two cards, can learn to play
poker with extreme ease.
| "The thing to do is to learn how to play
the game we'll, and 1t is fairly surprising
to notice how few players ever succeed
in that. have known poker players
enough in my time to make respectable
| militia force for a good-sized Western
State. but doubt il there have been enough
really good players among them to officer
J more than one regiment.
and the surprising thing about it is
that it is almost impossible to say what
the characteristic traits Of good player
are. 1t s easy enough to pick out man
| who really is one, and study his character
| and his way Of playing till you form a
| general notion OF how and why he is Sue
| cessful, and SO construct theory Of what
| sort of man is likely to be a good player.
"The trouble with that is that II you
apply the same study to some other man,
who is also good player. you will find
| that he Is an entirely different sort of man,
and that his play is very likely to lead you
into a totally different theory.
-Then again, it is not a very difficult thing
to analyze the game itself, and build up
| a theoretical system of play, found ed on a
mathematical calculation of chances, with
a due allowance for the personal equation
as an influence in all doubtful situat ions.
such as those that involve bluff. and so
to construct theory about what sort Of
man is likely to be good poker player.
And you may say to yourself that Smith,
perhaps. is the very man.
-You know that he has a wonderful head
for mathematics and tina. he has the per-
centages OF the game down to a dot. And
you have proof that he is good judge of
human nature, and is COOL quick, coura-
eeo,s, and withal. cautious. So you say
that Smith ought to be good player, and
YOU wat Oh him and find that he is rank
sucker.
e. ho ,St; ON hat
luck is what does it all, but, of course, If
you do that you've got to give up all idea
Of any difference between a good player
and poor one There is such thing as
luck, and il has its effect on the game whether
man knows how to play or not. but don't
know Of anything much more foolish than
to say that luck Is the only thing that makes
man win or lose. ~
my own notion ia that the secret OF good
play is something more subtle than you
will hit on by following up either one Of
these three lines OF theorizing. 1t is pretty
hard to define it, exactly. but should say
a successful player is generally man who
understands the mathematics Of the game,
as a matter of course, and has courage
and judgment as well as cool nerve, but who.
over and above all that, has occasional
hunCheS, ana Wnen he pelS ROOi HUSKY
one plays it out for all it's worth.
.The bunch is queer bird. I believe.
II he could be caught and classified. he
would be as valuable as genuine ghost
to the Society Of Psychical Research. You
can't tell where he comes from, or what
brings him, and, unless you are an expert
in lunches, you can't always distinguish
him from fool notion that'll get in your
head and cost you stack O. blues If you
don't watch out.
And he is entirely and distinctly diff
ferent from anything that you can arrive
at by exercise of your very best judgment
and knowledge of your opponents play.
As nearly as l can explain it to myself,
a real bunch is the next thing to positive
knowledge on a matter in which you have
no means whatever of even founding an
opinion.
"You might call it spontaneous knowl-
edge. 1t sounds ridiculous, perhaps, to
say that a man can have such thing, and
1t will cert ainly seem foolish to anybody
who hasn't played poker to say that it is
a recognizable factor in the game, but.
aft er all, it is no more wonderful than good
many other things that we can't explain,
even after we are obliged to admit that they
are true.
Il have never had many lunches myself,
though have my share OF such fool notions
as l was just speaking about, and they
very often cost me money. Sometimes one
OF em will win out and so encourage me to
keep on playing them. l don't know as
they are such bad things to have, for a
good winning at poker is likely to be equal
to several losses, but I'm little scarev Of
them at that.
when real bunch comes, though,
NAV 1t for all l can. l remember case
about a year ago in which one Of them
saved me from a monstrous awkward
situation
ii was in Chicago an d was skating out
pretty near the edge Of the ice. The bust
ness I was on had used up almost all my
ready money and the profits hadn't begun
TO come in. There was nobody out there
that could borrow from without hurting
NV credit. and had tied up everything at
home so that l couldn't raise cash without
a lot Of trouble.
.In other words, had overplayed the
specllation, and stood to lose a lot unless
something turned quickly. And it didn't
look like turning quickly.
AT last IL came to situation where l
had to have about six hundred in cash the
noyt day or pull out, and pulling out meant
something like disaster ] counted up
what there was in my pocket after dinner
and found just two hundred, with enough
ID CHANGE for living eNpenGaS for n dav