Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-10
TRAGEDY OVER POKER

It la played in said region is liable 10 stack
up against worse ereuhie than did the
British soldier vine eionped into a M0ham-
medan mosque with his boots and spurs
and helfnet on observed an old GaIifor-
| Man. who is visiting Washington. For
there's a heap of different kinds of poker
played in this country. And the worst oil
it Is tlaat the man who plays the kind OF
a game he was raised on in his own section
is always blind to the. beauties OF the en-
tirely different game that he drifts into
when he gets away from his own neck-of-
| tile-woeds. Poker is a good deal like Injun
talk. can talk pretty fair Modoe nnjun.
but / reckon IL I'd talk Modoc to bad
Sfcshone or to an impetuous Sioux he'd
begin to figure on how my top hair would
| do for tepee lining. And there are more
mixed brands of draw poker played around
the United States and territories than there
are Injun dialects.
81 once saw a game of poker that re-
suited pretty seriously for both players on
account of the lack of an understanding
between them before the game started as
to Just what the hands were worth. This
happened in Benecia, few miles up the
bay and the San Joaquin from San Fran
cisco, in '6S.
Il was in Jack Caton,s big Benecia faro
mill one Sunday afternoon-for the game
was as wide open then on Sundays as on
week days--trying to pump little sense
into the fool head of a friend of mine who
had chubbed away nearly every dollar he
I had in the world at Benecias brace games.
when one of the iook-euts, who knew the
interest | took in watching good game
of poker. although L never played except
with friends, came over to where I was
standing and said:
/ Jacks got a good game of draw on
with a new man upstairs. Go on up and
look 1t over
| Now in those days Jack Caton--who was
shot and killed by Billy the Kid in Arizona,
many years later-was about the hottest
poker player on the Pacific slope. He ran
faro games in most of the sizeable towns
in California for the money there was in
ii. but he just played draw poker for fun.
And he always played on the level, for
he wasn't man who cared to mix pleasure
with business, and he wouldn't have found
any entertainment in stacking the papers
or dealing from the bottom or middle IN
any game that he got Into just to ENJOY
the study of the percentages.
when l went upstairs to the poker
room Cation was sitting In his shirt sleeves
opposite a solid looking man of forty or
Whereabouts, dressed in the uniform OF q
steamship officer. When l was told that
he was chief engineer of one of the big
Panama steamers L didn't have much
trouble in figuring out where he'd got held
of the huge sack of gold coin he had with
him For in those days the chief engineers
| of the west coast ships used to have charge
OF the coaling of their vessels. and they
considered it quite legitimate to take a
rake-down of several thousand dollars every
time they coaled ship. Coal cost from ~
to $50 ton, and the chief engineers had
the making of the report of their bunker
space and entered into the arrangements
with the ship coaIers on the west coast.
It was the custom of the day for the chief
engineers of the Panama steamers to feath-
er their nests in this way, and nobody APP
peared to think anything of it.
This chief engineer had just been trans
ferred from the east to the west coast,
which accounts for his Ignorance of the
rules of the California game of draw POKER
When turned up found that he'd been
jabBing Cation pretty hard since the begin
ming of the game. But the two. different
brands of poker played by the two men
hadn't yet come into conflict.
"You see they don't play straigbts out on
the slope. The sloper who hasn't Travelled
or played poker with eastern men doesn
know what the word straight means as ap-
piled to the game of draw. Cation. OF
course, knew all about straights, but he
never played EN- with anybody, and think
he had right to assume that any man
who played draw with him In hts own ter
rftory ought to know the rules Of the
game IN that territory.
There was big Jackpot heap in the CEN
ter Of the table when / went upstairs to
look at the game. 1t had been sweetensd
probably half dozen times, and already
contained something close on to S1,o0o IN
double eagles. But neither man seemed To
be able to catch openers. II went. around
between them eleven times altogether, and
every time 1t passed both men sweetened
1t for lump. The chief engineer dealt the
twelfth mess. Cation was one of those cool
chaps who picked up his cards leiSurely
and one by one, and when he had thus got
hold of his first two papers, he calmly jog
gled 500 into the middle and remarked
that it was open, before looking at the
others.
9"rhese tickets of mime are worth $500
more, said the chief engineer, who was a
pretty self-contained chap himself, showing
the yellow stuff into the pot.
"'Tien you want to play it for keeps,
pardner,' said Cation, standing the raise be-
fore the draw, and discarding two.
1.-THE chief engineer took one paper. He
picked it up, looked at it for 81 second or
two. and then carefully closed up the hand
like fan and laid it on the table in front
Of him.
| DO your bluffing' he said to Cation.
s. How about a thousand dollars worth?'
inquired Cation. Ticking the double eagles
into the pot.
Thousand more than you,' said the
chief engineer pushing his gold in.
And a thousand said Cation, until the
blinking of the metal became almost in
cessant-
New, 1 had been standing behind Cation
when he drew cards, and when I saw him
catch pair of mines TO his three kings
figured that 1t was all over, especially as
the engineer had drawn one card, which
locked like a case of four-f1ushing or two
pairs. But the way the sailor kept hitting
back at Cation finally got me TO guessing,
of the coin out of his sack / had almost
begun to believe that he'd caught pat fonrs
When the thousand dollar raises had gone
back and forth several tonnes, and there
was nearly $9,0e9 in the pot, the chief en-
greer, cool as a mountain trout in a shady
hole, emptied out his coin sack, and found
that he had little more than 81 900 left.
s.FIe showed his remaining 81 Geo to the
center and said, Call
"Caten spread CUT his king-ful
'.No good, said the chief engineer.
spreading out a seven-high straight flush
of diamonds and reaching for the pot.
"Hey? What's no good? Hands off
that pott sung out Cation. What In hlazes
do you mean? Since when did q. flush beat
a. full houseT
"A flush doesn't replied the chief en-
gineer. but this thing of mine is a straight
flush. which beats any mess of fours. Take
your ffippers off that coin.
Straight flush be hanged yelled Cation.
springing to his feet. Not ON this side of
the Sierras ii doesn't beat full housef
.sThe words were hardly out of his mouth
before the engineer, who was big, power
full man, had Cation by the throat. Then
he did a cruel thing. Holding the gamblers
throat In a vise-like clutch with bis left
hand he deliberately polxed his strong.
horny right forefinger into Cations right
eye, iabbing 1t out. Wild with rage and
pain Cation whipped out long knife, and
H., nborf three minutes the chief engineer