The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-04-26
TESTED THEIR LUCK
! AT POKER.
A Quiet Game Not Far From
Central Park Where Stakes
and Skill were High.

Five keener poker players were. perhaps
never engaged In q game together. than the
Ave who sat down In the back parlor OF
o modest clubhouse. within. two uiles Of
Central Park. only a few weeks ago. il Ia
not a gambling house, though games are
played there for high stakes at times. but
Is maintained as a private club by few
well-to-do bachelors with tastes In common
and ample means TO indulge them.
While love for draw poker Is certainly
one Of thesc tastes, II Ii by no means the
only one. and such game as the Ave were
about to engage In was unusual. 1t was
talked about among the members for some
days before II occurred and since then has
been the subject Of much discussion. 10
great was the talk that the details became
known after q time TO Q number OF outsid-
ers. and one Of the players. finding that
club rulee had been already broken, cor
sentsd after some urging to tell the story
In detail, in order. as he said. TO set at rest
certain suspicious that had been reused as
to the character Of the play.
In the first place. he said, 1T should
be Understood that no ole OF the hve has
the slightest suspicion Of any foul play In
the game. We have been friends for years.
and each OF the party is . man whose char
scter and business standing Ia above re-
proach. We have played together from
time to time ever since the club was estab-
lished and there has been 30 much chaffin g
among us about luck ard skill. that we were
all eager to try ourselves In q game In which
We could test ourselves. as Il were. and fairly
gauge each others skill In the game. II was
really a sort Of tournament IN which none Of
the members Of the club was entered except
the five who were reco lised as really frst-
class players.
We made II table stakes game, and each
bought a thousand dollars worth Of chips
at the start. There was nothing said about
buying more In case q player should 60
broke, but know had decided for myself
that a thousand was as much ~ ! cared
to lose at a sitting, and that II should
lose that, would retire from the game
There were two others who, think, felt as
I did, and although the other two are rich
enough to lose much more than that and
not feel it, the general idea was that We
could test the matter sufficiently without
putting any more money In II we played
about as we usually did when we bought a
nunuTeu AT u tim6.
Our object In starting as We did was
to give scope to the game without coming
to a showdown too speedily. As II proved.
two Of the players bought the second time
and one bought three times, making 1000
in all, that was on the table before we quit.
But even at that, I don't think anybody
ever overplayed his hand except when there
was a deliberate bluff and that did not hap
pen very often.
The ante was a dollar, calling two, with
five-dollsr jack pots following the trick
and threes or better Just as we usually
played, and we stuck to II even after play
grew exciting One Of the players tried
two or three times TO ipcrease the ante. but
We all sat on him 20 hard that va kept him
IN line.
We hadn't played more than twenty
minutes before the first struggle came
between a flush and full house. Il was
my deal and held the hush pat, No. One
opened the pot for the size Of IL under the
guns. No. Two, having two pairs, made II
ten TO draw cards, and Three and -Four
dropped
or course. with my flush ! wanted all
the play could get, and had to choose
between the chance Of driving the opener
out by raising the second time. and the
other chance 0; getting no call after ! had
stood pat. ] decided 70 risk the first, %
almost anybody would have done, and
! made It fifteen.
ION three deucee, No. One didn't feel
strong enough to 60 back against double
raise 90 he simply made good, and Two. With
his two pairs, OF course went no further,
80 there was lust $50 In the Dot when we
drew cards.
NO. One drew 10 the strength Of his hand
showing probably threes. which we saw
afterward that he had. and Two did some
studying ] watched him closely. and
decided that he was considering whether
10 draw one card or three. Two pairs would
be worthless against threee, and by throw
ing one away he'd have q better chance
TO make three big ones. and that was what
he decided on; =. bad o the i Is draw
Number One didn't bett9r and very
wisely refused to bet. Two, however,
threw In his dollar and I raised him fifty.
/ couldn't have played II differently. but
didn't !; even sn1 sSnseds S SAL 1,.,.,a
Of calling, he raised me hundred. and
act me guessing. or course, IL might have
been a bluff. but didn't think II was. A
man isn't likely 10 bluf very often against q
pat hanO aitef bucD play Is We ndu nau,
and concluded that he had a full, He
couldn't have made a straight or a hush
on a thrse-card draw unless he had drawn
wild. On the other hand, nv flush was
king high and didn't feel like throwing
Il down 20 possible bluff, so ] called.
though / felt that ] was beaten. II he
hadn't been known n hluf pretty often
! wouldn't have done II. but he wasn't
bufine that tims. He had caught an ece
and two seveps TO HE aces. And as IL hap
pened he would have made the full house
II he hadn't thrown away his second pair,
for the first card he got was an ace.
1T was blow for me. hut wasn't Grip
pied by any means, having lost less then
two hundred out Of nv thousand so !
erinned and decided TO play close for
little while.
sThere wasn't much doing for a con-
siderable time after that hand. Once In q
while, a big hand would be shown on a call,
or after Jackpot. but the big hands didn't
coma together. and three Of a kind was
about all that anybody cav, until we all
began to grumble about tho slowness Of the
game. We changed the deck three or four
times. but. somehow, the cards wouldn't
show.
sThen, all Of a sudden, there was action
galore, and the first thing that happened
came on my deal. as It had before. Num-
Der Two opened IL this time. and Three
raised him; Four raised again; and threw