The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-02-25
New York SUM-

Washington.-"Ed WOlcOtt was the
most whimsical, but at the same time
one of the nerviest poker players J.
ever foregathered with around card
table" said a member of a former
Colorado delegation in congress, allud-
ing to the late United States Senator
Edward Q. Wolcott of Colorado.
His game of draw was as various
az the glints from the different facets
OF diamond. There was no such
thinS as making a study of his game
ana marking out 81 line of action
wherewiih 10 combat il. He was al
ways willing to agree that the steady,
lmpassiVe poker player stood the best
chance Of getting the money in the
long run, but he argued that he didn't
play for the purpose of getting the
money, but for fun. I once saw him
stand pat on a pair of mines and boost
the opener out of a $4,000 jackpot. !
IT was fovOrite device Of his to allow
himself to be caught red-handed in
q series of bluffs that looked little
short of imbecile, and then, when he /
had got all hands fixed in the belief
that his main graft was attempted pot
stealing, wait for the real goods and
turn around and whang them to
death
ruitiye a poker player a IS the late David
T. Littler of Illinois into so deep a
maze of study one night that Littler
went around looking dazed for several
days afterward. Littler, q wealthy
man, who had been one of the Pacific
railway commissioners. was one of the
shrewdest students of other mems /
poker idiOsyncTasies who ever came to
washington, and it was more fun for
him to show some antagonist up in /
what he considered a fool poker play
than it was for him to win money.
a Chinaman who was I'm the same
game and who haG been up against the
same problem that worried Littler smil- /
ed wan, gray smile when it was all /
over and looked like a small boy
caught teasing the cat The Chinaman
was one Of the secretaries of the Chin
csc legation in Washington and a
poker player who knew how 7 was
the other player in the game, but
figured i'm the main incident of the
session merely as locker on.
The game was s. ante and $50 limit. /
and it was played in the sitting room
Of Senator WOlCOtts hotel suite here
WOlcOtt had started out with astOnish-
1nely poor luck in his run of cards (
Littler, who was a follower of the
old fashioned piay-them- when-you- /
Get-them poker dogma. got most of the /
hands and money during the first two
or three hours Of the sitting. It seemed /
TO be WOlcOttS luck TO get something
only when the others Of US had Moth (
ing TO draw to. and once he had been /
passed out on his ante when I'd sup
piled him with pat king full on aces: :
then, attempting to bluff his path /
through to the turn of the tide. Littler +.
had spiked him every time.
For want of something better to use (
as a buck, the Chinaman had slipped /
magnificent emerald ring off his +
fEger for that purpose, and. the ring .
coming into my possession with a small /
not, I dealt the jackpot hand that /
brought about the incident of the even /
ing.
NOlcOtt, who was on my left gave
knuckle rap on the edge of the table
TO indicate that he couldn't open the /
pot. The Chinaman, who was next
observed that he was tired trying to
fill a pair Of jacks, so that it was by
him. Dave Littler pushed five blue
ones to the middle.
% 'FGr fifty he said
With only nine high I went into the
discard.
''Wolcott. before going i'm. spread \
four of his cards out, face up, on the
table. The four cards were the deuce. 4
trey. four and five of hearts
Dave ne said to LittleT, how many /
are your going to draw?' II
Tt'H cost you fifty to find that out. \
Ed replied Littler, pIacidly. II
1t seems like dissertation to try Il
to fill a hand like this with so little
at stake observed WolcOtt. musingly. II
Now if we were only playing sure
enough poker!
If the other are willing put in
7
Chinaman. I'm willing TO set aside
the limit just to give you your oppor-
tunlty TO sidestep what you consider a
sacrilege If all hands are agreebIe
we can take off the lid for this hand
1 only suggest it. It's all one to me-
I n out Of it, anyhow said l.
Well it's up to our friend from
the Land OF Flowers, then, said Littler
The Chinaman said that the tax
ing off of the limit was very agree
able to him, temporarily or perman- |
ently-I never saw high-grade
CEinaman yet who was a bad gambler
or a poor loser
AL right. Dave said Wolcott.
Ghying his no-gOod card into the
cast-off heap. I guess III impose an
additional charge of five hundred to
draw cards
The Chinaman was there. SO was
Litter.
Il gave WOlcott his one card He
didn't have the curiosity 40 look at it
until he saw what the two others
were going to take. The Chinaman
cook three.
TIL struggle along the best I know
how with what I've got" said LittIer
1t struck me right away that
Littler was standing pat for the moral
effect such action might produce on
WOlcott in case WoIcott filled
straight only. The shrewd glance i
which the Chinaman cast out of the
tail Of his eve at Littler showed me
that he had Littler figured out about
the same way.
when the two others had drawn.
WOlcott cautiously raised one corner L
of the card I gave him. We were all
watching him carefully. but. I. who
knew him far. better than aitbar &c