The sun., 1908-12-13

snd ,hs ,a,etbI,, vn .a she - y. IS ~. EAS =,
with bills Of lading for cattle. CLOTHES B
! At the part, letters from houses In the bee
shipping business and wad.
Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga at
certain time and Jake was to stop oI
there on his way East Every one wen
to stroll up and down the porch In hi
. Western outfit and talk cattle and shov
his bills Of lading TO every one he coult
. get 70 talk to or buy drinks for.
, The clothing man was acquainted
with some OF the men that played In I
big poker. game at the Grand Union
and though Il was too steep game fol
him TO play In he thought ne could worI
! Jake into II. Jake showed UP on tint
all right and drank straight whislfey
and talked big about the cattle business
and the herds he had out In Nebrasks
and set around the porch quite q bi
90 as to attract attention.
J THE clothing man used to make fur
OF him. to his poker playing friends. bui
never let on he had ever set eyes on hin
before. They all laughed at Jake's biz
fists. t
zone day one OF the poker crowd got
iollying Jake about his cattle and Jake
fell for II In great shape. He pulled
out his bills Of lading and hls letters
player all his family history.
About that time the clothing man
thought Jake was fairly started and IL
might be better to lelve him alone, 90
he goes OF to Rochester for a trip. He
had 1t sized up right. because Jake used
the crowd, Of poker players when they
were asserting out there. presuming
on his acquaintance with the one who
had been jollying him.
"Of course 1t Just naturally occurred
to them to ask him II he had ever played
poker, and he had to own up that he had
played Ave cent limit down home, and
They had eirlittlelaugha and they thought
1t would be great fun to open the country
jays eyes a bit. 80 they asked him In TO
| watch their game one afternoon In which
the limit must have been the ceiling.
when he saw them raising each other
$500 and s1 900 at dip he pretended that
he thought they was kidding each other
and that when the game was over they
would give it back. That made them
laugh more than ever. They thought II
was such q good joke that they told him
he had It right and asked him to sit In
with them after dinner that evening.
Jake was pretty careful and didn't
1 win moren about fifty. He made q great
fuss about 1t when they wouldn't take the
money back, saying they couldn't figure
out just who had lost 1t, there being 30
many pots. SO next afternoon they told
Jake they was going to play for keeps
and Jake lost about seventy-hve by good
management
Same Old game; leading the suckers
| on by mesmerizing EN- with q losing
observed the barkeeper.
Right on time the clothing man came
back and he had to be introduced to Jake,
Of course, This made 1t look all right
when theyI had little talk at one end Of
the porch next morning. Hearing from
Jake that the game was dead easy for
him the clothing man passed him few
thousand dollars and told him to push
things along.
aThe long and short Of II was that in
the next two days Jake had cleaned those
fellows up for about forty thousand dol
lars and only tore himself away because he
said A his S cattle would ha be waiting for him him
next morning"
aWas afraid they would tumble and
make a fuss. eh?' demanded the bar
"No, The clothing man just thought
they had worked that crowd enough and
picking that he know'd Of elsewhere.
In that last particular he was pretty near
right. cause he and Jake travelled this
country and Europe and Asia, | believe.
and cleaned up every big game they could
get into. They do say Jake won over a
million dollars playing poker
racket .,t --..-r
"They kind of guessed at 1t by what
these college fellows calls a process Of
elimination. When he got up against
the professionals they sized up the
situation that he must be holding out.
They noticed that the deal did not matter
~ bat hat
hold of an extra good hand and showed
any signs Of it by his play Jake was in that
pot with both feet and generally had the
cards to win u.
What worried them was where he held
the cards IL he was holding out. cause he
never put his hands below the table nor
pulled his sleeves nor scratched the back
Of his neck nor nothing like that. An
other thing that bothered the shaI pest
OF them was what ne did with his dead
wood II he held out, cause you can't hold
on to FIVE cards dealt you and play three
or four more that you've got up your
sleeve, you know.
sOld Capt. Dale always insisted that
Jake ate en-, There wasn't no other
way, he insisted, that Jake could be work.
ing an advantage except holding out, and
there wasn't no possibility Of his getting |
rid OF his deadw ood, with all them pro-
fessionals watching him. unless he ate
IL,
Eat EN- up Jake
.l've heard tell OF him. Lives In Or
leans now?" queried the barkeeper.
Yes. IL got 50 that he couldn't get into |
a game anywhere in the wide world |
Every sport knew those immense hands |
Of his the moment they saw them. no
matter how well Jake was disguised.
-Since he has retired they do cay that |
he has showed some Of the boys how easy
IL is to hold out cards In the palm Of your /
hand il the hand is big enough. he never |
owned up that that is how he did it. but |
have heard tell that one night he offered
TO bet the wine that he could hold four |
kings in the palm Of ono hand and four
aces in the palm Of the other and shuttle |
and deal and discard and draw as II he had
nothing in his fists at all. and he did it 30
easy it was laughable.'
Then he kind Of gave his racket away
after all?" r
"No, he never did. He knew the boys
were certain that he was holdout player,
but the holding out is nothing. You've
played poker enough to know that the
trick 10 to get rid Of the deadwood. It's
not easy TO get rid OF three or four cards
after you have discarded and drawed |,
when four or Ave men ara watching you
Just 10 see how you lott.
That was Jake's great hold, and he
never told no man how he did it. The
,harpest gamblers in this country watched
him for years and never got on TO it, The
Tunny part of il was that you could count
The pack any time you liked, and il was
Always correct, even when you felt sure