The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-09-11

EN- to play baby game o. draw poker.
well, Waterman be set into that game
with his first dollar. an they do say I'm
that time he hain't never knowed what
twas to 70 broke. He were q steady.
industrious man that never neglected .
game O. poker, no matter what the tempta-
ton was, II he cd get anybody to play with
him.
Eve heard tell It he's been knowed
to play fr forty-eight hours at stretch,
an be were that conscientious t he wouldn't
quit tho game to get a. mite to eat. IL
he cd get q niger to 60 over to the hotel
while he was playin' and buy him sand
wich, he'd eat 1t, but II he couldn't, he'd
wait till the game broke up an eat then.
There want an almighty lot O. money
In that there crowd O. rousters, all told,
but such as it was, Waterman had 1t. II
e'er a one on 'em had dollar, 'peared
like he smelled 1t, an he'd never rest till
he got the Teller playin' an got that dollar.
Just naturally, 'twan't long afore that
sort o. thing got talked about an we seen
that Waterman had the nakin's Of q citizen
Into him, 90 laid for him one day an got q
talkin' with him. Feared like q man I
cd do what he'd did might be worth dom
somepin' with.
He were monstrous close-mouthed
about hisself, like a man had oughter be,
talkin' to strangers, but he had the best
ideAa about draw poker It I'd ever heerd
I'm a nan a. hadn't had no more advan-
taees nor he had. Feared he hadn't never
had no rec | instruction, so there was p'ints
about the game, such as the deal an haadlin
the discard dextrous, that he hadn't no
notion Of. But he had studied out q sort
o. theory to work by that 'peared to work
all right.
He were q man Of good straight re-
ligious idees, too, show In he'd had trainin'
when he was young. an had good princi-
pies. He says to me:
Greenhut, there's q good many plays
poker thouten any reel notion O.. what
the game is REILLY for. Pears to me- he
says, like the good Lord had p'vided poker
as q easy means o. divertin' surplus cash
I'm the pockets o. the shif'less to them o
the thrifty. There I've been,' he says
a playin' poker with them po' benighted
rousters f'r nigh onto three weeks, payin'
strict attention to business, an I'm fixed
oomfble now. There amt one O. them
though, that's got money enough to buy
drinks till the next boat comes along
just naturally, that was interestin'. an
30 g to draw him along ! says:
How did you manage it?'
He sort O. thought little, an hesays
First OF. I reckon it's cause play
on business principles. One o. the things
/ noticed about poker was that most every
body quit loser, an says to myself that
the best way to get around that was not
to Quit. II you don't quit you can't qui,
loser.
on how a man plays his hand. ! amt one
O. Thorn high-fyin' players as is always
tryin' rr straight flush or four Of kind
My notion Is, like the good book says
"A pair in the hand is worth two In the
deok.' So when get pair don't gently
try to do no better with It. just set back
an play 'em rr all I'm worth.
"a pat hand u most gently good TO a
pot even II there amt no more'n o pail
into Il, but II you 60 to DRAWN three cards
YOU give yourself away, like
well, 1t was easy to see t man like
that was worth cultivatin'. He had ideas
OF his own, even II they was crude, about
how to play, an' lhst's blame sight more
n the ordinary man hiss 80 / says to
him:
That's a pretty good way, sometimes
but how II tho other feller's got better
hand nor you havef 1t must happen some
times -