The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-19

10 De much chance of him losing. or course, it wouldn't do for me to play or to seem to know him at all, so I made him leave town and get his hair cut, buy new clothes and come back to Denver | in a couple of days under another name. And, above all, to go to another hotel i and not to recognize me when he met me. He was pretty intelligent, even if he | was half-cracked, like most men of his sort seem to me to be, and l didn't have much trouble to coach him in his part. We practised with a deck of cards nearly all night. and then 1 staked him and | went to bed.
 He turned up all right a couple of nights later at Camps place, and if I hadn't been looking for him 1 wouldn't have known him he had changed his ap- i pearance so greatly. And he looked around the room like a greenhorn and stranger would, and came over to the l poker table as he'd agreed to do.
 They played stud poker at that time a good deal at Camps place for table stakes and if there's any quicker or l harder gambling than that 1 don't know what 1t is. Of course, you can play other games for as much, but there's nothing ever struck that's fercer than stud poker.
 Well, 1t was open game and five l of the biggest players in Denver were l at the table when he came up. They'd 1 started on a hundred apiece, and there l was no objection to his taking a hand 1 when he flashed a century and invited himself in.
 "Of course, was known in the house, and 1t was no ways strange for me to sit little way back from the table look 1 ing on. What l was afraid of was that the players would be so careful about looking at their buried cards that l | wouldn't be able to see them, but l got | a scat where 1 could see two players cards and that gave me percentage enough in the game.
 "I had coached Smith never to come in under jack buried, or pair back to l back, so l had some knoweldge of his game all the time not much, of course, | but enough to help and l had practised with him enough that night in his room to believe that he wouldn't make any | mistake in reading what was in my 1 mind about the two hands against him. Well, it worked beautifully. On the very first deal one of the men l was watching caught an ace buried and the 1 other caught q king.
 Smith, as 1t happened, caught a pair | of eights, one buried, and neither of the | others got pair on the second card The ace man bet dollar for q starter, the | king man came in and Smith raised 1t a dollar The others stayed out and these | two made good.
 "The next round, the ace man--call him | Jones for convenience-caught seven | spot, making ace four seven and the king man-call him Brown-made king, l jack six. Smith got a queen. The ace man clipped a dollar. Brown stayed, and Smith stayed. 1 looked to see him raise if he had pair, but he was playing better than l gave him credit for, and was willing to wait. "On the fourth round Jones caught an ace, Brown got a six spot, making pair for each of them, and Smith got bis third eight, making two in sight. As he was high man he bet five dollars and Jones raised him ten. That drove Brown out and Smith came back with twenty more. | "I was signalling a pair of aces in my mind, and l knew if Smith was catching the signal he was either bluffing or lie had at least queen up l looked at him closely and it didn't look like he was | buffng, so l felt pretty easy, though l | was naturally nervous.
 Well, Jones was hooked, of course. He wouldn't drop a pair of aces with card to come for any twenty dollar bet with forty-four dollars in the pot so he i stayed. and on the last round Smith didn't better but Jones got another seven, giv- ing him aces up.
 T kept the mental signals going, but Smith was a bird. He didn't bat an eye, but planked fifty dollars up cool as | a veteran. Of course, Jones couldn't raise, | and didn't want to lay down, so after bit he called, and Smith had blamed near doubled his pile on one hand.
 He stayed out for a couple of deals after and then. getting an ace showing, he had to bet, and put up the usual dollar for starter Jones had caught sixes l back to back and he stayed. Brown had king buried and a ten showing, and he stayed
 Two other men stayed, too but couldn't see what they had buried. and l got anxious again. But 1 signalled the pair of sixes and the king and Smith told me afterward that he could read the signals all right as l had Judged from his play, for he got king for his third card, and would likely have staged on ace king if he hadn't caught my thought
 "As 1t was, he just bet dollar and when Jones raised 1t five, he dropped out. The others stayed, and Jones, getting a second pair before the deal was out made a good pot, but it hadn't cost Smith any more than two dollars
 Well it went on that way for an hour. Smith played carefully and didn get caught for any great amount on any one dear and Jones and Brown never caught him once. They couldn't, of course. him knowing from me what l they had.
 'rhere was one big pot at the end, ] when Brown made beautiful blun With a pair of eights and a ten and queen showing, against Smiths pair of hines and king and seven showing. The others l had dropped out and there was about scventy-five dollars in the pot.
 Smith bet twenty, knowing that Brown had q jack buried, and Brown came back at him with hundred It looked dangerous, of course but I was thinking my message as hard as knew how, and Smith showed his whole pile into the pot I hen Brown weakened and Smith i Jumped the game twelve hundred to the | good.
 Talk about lead pipe oinches! We kept that up for a month, not every night but three of four times week and cleaned up over forty thousand dollars before the month was over. It. was a fortune to Smith, even after he had divided fair and square but it ruined the game. He drank himself to death inside of the i next month. and l never found a pal after that who could work the same game"
 l 54.fo-SELMA AND RETURN--$4.1o Account Alabama Christian Endeavof