The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-02-05
GREAT POKER CAME
 PLAYED IN 4 COACH
Stage Driver Tells of a Bad
 Mixup in Montana
WHY LE 'COUtR VAS lUCYK
Was the Only Player Left When the Shooting Subsided and No One Knew Where the Big Pot
 Went to.
BY FRED B. WARREN.

BY FRED 3. WARREN.
 "one of the worst mixups l ever saw at a game of poker, an I've seen good many, was when four gamblers played in my coach all one day during my trip from Lillon in Montana, up to Bannaek, said old Bill Graves. the first driver to hold the reins over a coach that pene- trated the winding fastness of the Lit tie Ruby river in the early mining days.
 Tn them days the gamblers useter make the trip with me as much as oncet a week, and they would usually stop at all the camps along the line to Silver City and line their pockets with the big games in store at the end of the run It hadn't been a good trip for any of them how ever and it just happened that l had no passengers aboard who wanted to play A few of them was too careful to lose much or didn't have much with them to lose. l don't reckon any one O the gam blers had taken in a hundred dollars along the line of camps, and in them days that want even the price of travel ing expenses, the way them fellers spent money.
 .Natchually they was sore and when they seen that there was nothing doing with the traVeling public they made 1t up to have a game among themselves and see which of them would have to lose to help the others out
 Tn the crowd was Joe Goddard, Mike Conoley, Bill Ayers, and Gaspard Le' Gouer, who came from Moo Oreens. They was thoroughbreds and was known all over the west for nervy men.
 "Le'Couer had come from good peo- pie, but he were a black sheep and the folks wouldn't have nothing to do with him. But as far as manners and educa- tion went there wann none that came west could equal him. Le ~ouer was about the nerviest member of the party. He were a great dandy too, and in them days all gamblers were dandies.
 He was IS soft and elegant in his talk as a preacher, but if there were call for fight he was all there. He were womanish looking chap, but he had fought five or six duels and he had q record of killing three men with knife in rough and tumble fight at one sitting.
 Had Fighting Populations.
 Goddard and Ayers had pretty good re- putations as fighters but Conoley was man from down east somewhere that hadn't been in the west long and nobody knowed much about him.
 They made 1t up to have one sitting of poker before we got to Bannack. We was due there about an hour after dark and the play begun about ten o'clock in the morning. We all knowed in advance that il were sure to be a game with high stakes if the cards run good.
 But high play don't always make short game. The game rim along until midday without any startling hands be- Ing passed oyer the table.sAll were play in monstrous cautious and laying for a good chance. The first one to get it was Conoley The jackpot was sweetened up until there was near Slo0 In it. Conoley caught four sevens in the deal He had dealt the cards himself. Ayers opened. the pot for a hundred right under the guns and Lc' Couer hoisted him another hundred. Goddard sat next and he came in with two hundred more, making it four hundred for Conoley to draw cards Ayers didn't have no hand to raise on, but he made good, and Le'Couer must have sus- pcioned cross cut for he didn't raise no more, so all Goddard had to do was to set back and wait. There were then sl7oO In the pot and the draw to come
 "Ayo~s took two cards and Le'Couer stood pat, Goddard studied his hand for awhile. and allowed IS how he take two. Then the dealer drawed one. It were pretty sure thing for Conoley as anything 1 ever saw. Ayers throwed in a white chip. being $1, and Le'Couer put up his white chip and $l000 Goddard throwed down his hand. He may have been bluff ing and he may have had a good hand. but leastwise he didn't have a good enough combination to bet 5000 on Whatever ne had he didn't make the mistake of laying it down.
 Up to Le'Couer.
 "This give Conoley his chance. and he put up s2O00 more. Ayers took to the woods, anu it was up good and hard to LeCouer. Natchually he hadn't no way of judging what Conoley was doing it on, seeing as how he drawed one card. but it looked like he'd make a full or high flush and O course he might have fours. Any way, it made LeCouer study some but he had king full an O course he couldn't lay it down. Most players would have hoisted it once more if they'd had the money, and Le'Couer always had plenty ] O cash He looked at Conoley monstrous sharp till he satisfied hisself that there want no bluff about 1t, and then he called
 That give Conoley over $40OO winnings l on the hand. The other players was sore at missing their chance at this biggest ilttllu bA lAit HluiIltlS 6uIit bul Nitic want no word said
 "rhere want no proof of crooked play in the fact that Conoley lau dealt a pat full out against fours Tn his own hand but them fellers knowed one another pretty well and there want nothing l strange in their being suspicious like. "There was some close watching done l the next time the deal came to Conoley, and as hard luck have it there were three | ha Wa In mt l Le Couer had fush Davis had a straight and Conoley caught small full They played a straight in the west as long ago as the early mining days, but 1t were the rule then that straights were only counted when understood before l hand.
 There were some pretty stiff betting and Conoley cleaned mp about four houn- dred on the hand. Just about this time though I ain't saving as there was any thing crooked, Goddard spoke up pretty nasty like and said: