The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-05-18
Exciting Game of Poker When the
Stakes are High.


! haps, never engaged in a game to-
gether. than the five who sat down
in the. back parlor of a certain modest
| clubhouse only a few weeks ago II
4 IS not a gambling house, though games
/ are played there for high stakes at
/ times, but it IS maintained as a private
I club by a few well-to-do bachelors with
/ tastes in common and ample means to
/ indulge them.
While a love for draw poker is GER
I tdinly one Of these tastes, it Is by no
! means the only one. and such a game
/ as the i've were about to engage ia
was unusual It was talked about
! among the members for some days be-
7 fore 1t occurred. and since then has
been the subject Of much discussion.
/ So great was the talk that the details
| became known after a time to a num-
! Der OF outsiders. and one Of the players.
/ finding that club rules had been already
I broken, consented after some urging to
tell the story in detail, in order, as he
said, 10 set at rest certain suspicious
that had been aroused as to the char
acter Of the play.
In the first place" he said, 1t
should be understood that no one of the
five 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 character and business
standing is above reprOach- We have
played together from time to time ever
since the club was esta blished, and
there has been so much chafhng among
US about luck and skill, that We were
all eager to try ourselves in a game
in which we could test ourselves. as it
were. and fairly guage each other 8
skill in the game. It was really a sort
of tournament in which none of the
members Of the club were entered ex-
cept the I'VE who were recognized as
really frst-class players.
Made = a TabIe-stake Game.
I'VE made it a table-stakes game,
and each bought $1,000 worth of chips
at the start. There was nothing said
about buying more in case a player
should go broke, but I know had de-
cided for myself that $1,000 was as
much as I cared to lose at a sitting,
and that II I should lose that I would
retire from the game. There were two
others who, I 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 With
out putting any more money in if we
played about as we usually did when
we bought a hundred at time.
Our object in starting as we did was
to give scope to the game without com
ing to a showdown too speedily. AS u
proved, two Of the players bought the
second time, and one bought three
times, making $4,000 in all, that was on
the table before we quit. But even at
that, I don't think anybody ever over
played his hand except when there was
a deliberate bluff, and that did not
happen very often
1.-THE ante was a dollar, calling two,
with $5-doIlar jack pots following the
trick. and threes- or better, just as we
usually played, and we stuck to it, even
after play grew exciting. One of the
PLAYERS tried two or three times TO in
crease the ante, but We all sat o n him
so hard that we kept him in line.
A Flush and a Full House.
I'VE hadn't played more than twenty
minutes before the first struggle came,
between a flush and a full house. It
was my DEAL and held the flush pat.
No 1 opened the pot NOR the size of 1t
under the guns. No. ?, having two
3 and dropped,
"Of course, with my flush, wanted
all the play I could get, and 1 had to-
choose between the chance of driving
the opener out by raising the second
time, and the other chance of getting
no call after I had had stood pat. l
decided to risk the first, as almost any
body would have done, and 1 made 1t
fifteen.
"On three dueces No. 1 didn't feel
strong enough to go back against a
double raise. so he simply made good,
and Two with his two pairs. of course
went no furthed, so there was just 500
in the. pot when we drew cards.
mo. 1 drew to the strength of his
hand, showing probably threes, which
We saw afterward that he had, ana
Two did some studying. watched
his closely and decided that he was con-
sideTing whether to draw one card or
three. Two pairs would be worthless
against threes, and by throwing away
one he'd have a better chance TO make
three big ones. and that was what ne
decided on. As / had the last draw,
he could only guess what might DO.
Number 1 didn't better, and very
wisely refused TO bet. Two, however,
threw in his dollar, and I raised him
$50 = couldn't have played it differ
emily, but I didn'a even expect cali.
AT il happened I didn't get It. IN
stead Of calling he raised me q hun
bred, and set me guessing, OF course,
1t might have been a bluff, but didn't
think il was. a man isn't likely to bluff
very often against a pat hand after
such a play as we had had, and I con-
Guided that he had a full. He couldn't
have made a straight or a flush on a,
three card draw unless he had drawn
wild On the other hand, my flush was
king high, and I didn't feel like throw
ing it down to a possible bluff, so I
called. though I felt that I was beaten
If he hadn't been known to bluff pretty
often I wouldn't have done IL, but he
wasn't blufing that time. He had
caught an ace and two sevens to his
aces. And as it happened he would
have made the full house if ne hadn't
thrown away his second pair, for the
1 first card he got was an ace.
cit was a blow to me, but WASH I
crippled by any means, having lost less
than two hundred out of my thousand,
so I grinned and decided to play close
for a little while.
There wasn't much doing for a con-
siderable time after that hand. Once in
a while a big hand would be shown on
a cali, or after a jackpot, but the big
hands didn't come together. and three
of a kind was about all that anybody
saw, until we began to grumble about
the slowness of the game. We changed
the deck three or four times. but some
how the cards wouldn't show.
Then, all of a sudden, there was ac-
ton galore. and the first thing that
happened came on my deal, as it had
before. No. 2 opened it this time, and
No raised him. No 4 raised again,
and I threw down two little pairs, feel
ing that I had no show in that struggle
and was glad afterward that had no
show
zone lay down after I had done so,
and Two came back with another raise.
That made it clear that there would be
some good cards shown, at least, but
that wasn't the end. There had been
$50 in the not when it came around TO