Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-10-31
POKER BY MACHINERY
Automatic Player Deals, Diseards and
Draws To 4 Hand.

There is nothing too abstruse or diff
fic1llt for the inventive genius of the
Yankee to grapple with It conceiyes
appliances to scale the heights of air
or sound the depths OF ocean; il builds
the ponderous machine that picks UP
locomotive like q baby and con-
Structs the dainty thing -um- bob that
deity spreads the powder on my
lady's nose.
And now even the sacred and mystic
rites o. the poker game have been
probtd into and improved upon by a
man from Connecticut. who has re-
Gently filed in the Patent Office in
Washington an automatic poker
playing machine that does all but rake
III the pot for the lucky player. It
deals the cards. skins them over to
see what you've got. discards fer YOU.
ana draws to Your hand Then il
throws the bad hand in the. discards
ana Shufties for a new deal-and all
by pressing a button-an electric but
ton of course. There's mighty little
worth anything these days that hasn't
got an electric button somewhere
about it
me machine consists of a drumlike
CYLINDER about six inches long and the
sam" III diameter. On this ar. set five
rows OF cards. each row encirclins the
cylinder like a land. Each row con
talnS l.: cards. The total number of
CARDS thus comprising - are marked
as TO suits. so that there is a full
quota OF each. The cards thus mako
UP an ordinary pack.
Around this cylinder is a casipp
winch conceals all the cards. save ono
III each of the five rows: these are
Seen through slot in the casing inst
The length-or width. rather-of the
cdrd' ihere are thus always exposed
through this Slot a poker hand If
five cards
The machine. which is abou, tha
size of collar box has four soua+
legs on which it sits in from, Of Tho
player, Each player has one. on ton
VI ire casing there are five buttons.
""lc" cohtroi each one of the five
rows OF cards on the cylinder At one
ehd IS a master button which operates
oil the rows collectively. The game
commences IN the ordinary way. with
tie same old-fashioned ante. The in
Nehfor. feeling that nothing could i'm
prov" on that. forebore fooline with II
Thea each player presses the masta,
burton on his patent automatic nolxar
playing machine whereupon each of
Tue FIVE rows of cards revo1yes al
VARYING speeds.
When they cease to revoIve there is
SHOWN 70 each player through the slo,
flVe cards just as he would have GOT
had the cards been dealt in the old
fashioned slow method of hand-deal
ing. 1t is to be observed that tba
cards are protected from the gaze of
lnquIsitive players to the right or left
by shields that bar out all sight of
them save from the seat OF The one
playing that particular machine.
Bets are now made in the ordinary
Way. When this ceremony is complet-
ed tie man to the left OF the age man
announces how many cards he will
draw. at the same time pressing the
buttons above those which he means
to discard.
Thus. if he has a pair of kings. one
of them king of diamonds and the
other three cards consist of the four
five and nine of diamonds. he may an
nounce that he draws three and press
the buttons above the four, five and
nine, causing the cylinders these cards
are on to revolve and on coming to
rest, exposing three new cards, Just