The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1916-04-30

Uent Ill many or the old games. Auc-
ton has taken the place of bridge
just as completely as bridge sup.
planted whist. and auction pinochle
with a widow has knocked out the
older forms.
The latest candidate for public Ia
vor Is an innovation in the game Of
poker. which ~ apparently to he
known as "deuces running Wild" al
though the joker usually runs with
them. This Is simply the addition
OF o more iokers to the one with
which poker players have been for
some time familiar, but 1t brings with
1t some entirely new calculations as
to the rank and value OF the hands.
II Is rather curious that the intro
duction Of a Joker to the great Ameri-
can game originated in France.
There are no iokcrs in the European
packs. and when American cards were
first exported to the Continent the
joker was frequently shuiiied up with
the other cards n the hands dealt
before the extra car vas noticed. and
ven then IL was often mistaken for
the ace Of spades.
In England this did not occur be-
cause the custom house refused to
admit fifty-three cards as "a pack.
h law specifying the duty on a
pack OF hfty-two cards. and the OIL
Gals used to take the jokers out and
destroy them before wrapping the i'm
ported cards under the official stamp.
II was some years before this dith-
Guilty was overcome and the joker
admitted.
The French were already familiar
with the old game OF three stake
brag, in which there were three cards
that could be called anything the
holder pleased. These cards were the
ace Of diamonds. Jack OF clubs and
nine OF diamonds. When the-diamonds
were dropped there remained only the
club jack. and the french name for
this brasgcr was mistigris. and so it
came tn pass hat poker with a joker
came to he known as mistlsris all
over the world.
II Is only in comparatively recent
times that poker with a joker has
become popular in America. its chief
claim to favor being based on the fact
that II largely nullihed the book knowl-
edge OF the comparative values Of
hands possessed by players of the old
school and practically set at defiance
all betting on tile probability of i'm
provcment. owing to the presence of
a card which may he anything from
part OF a small pair up to five of a
kind.
The addition Of the four deuces gives
,,S ,'a,.Ar tt,.a cards ,r,s ~ tha hFtN-
three which he may call anything he
likes. even IL he has the actual dupli-
cate OF the named card In his own
hand. These five cards. tho actual
Joker and the four deuccs. are called
running wild" as they are liable to
turn up anywhere.
All five jokers in one hand is the
highest possible holding, four of A
Kind and any joker coming next. and
then straight Pushes. and so IN down,
The reason that Ave OF n kind will
beat a straight flush is that it is
harder 10 get. There are only four
teen hands. i've Of a kind. but there
are 204 straight Pushes with each of
the jokers.
The introduction OF dcuce running
wild gives four forms OF the game
which are quite new. One is the
fifty-two card pack. without tho regu-
lar Joker: another is the short pack
Of forty-four cards, tho treHs ana
fours being thrown out, and the others
are either Of these packs with the
Joker added.
Tho idea Of all these amc is tn
discount the knowledge e values pos
sesscd by the so-Callcd scientific
player. against whom there has al
ways been a conspiracy of some kind
or other. lack pots were invented To
force him to ante up. whether he had
anything in mis- hand or not. Now
that he has mastered that game dcuces
running wild have been invented for
his discontinue.
All poker hands are supposed 20 ho
ranked according to the difficulty "t
getting them. taking II consideration
the two elements of getting the orici-
nal hand and improving II. 1t Is
easier to fill a four card flush than II
four card straight, but the flush out
| ranks the straight because It is harder
to get the original four cards to draw
TO.
In mistigris. with only n joker in
the pack. Il is harder to get a joker
and an ace than II is I" get a pair Of
natural aces. because there are only
four ways to get an ace and the joker
while there are six ways TO get "a pair
OF aces, ar will be evident II the frIc
aces are laid out in a square, each sid"
and each diagonal of which forms ii
different pair.
For this reason any hand made with
the assistance OF the joker will out
rank any hand made with the natural
| cards, but the We introduce
| deuces running wild this condition it
| reversed, because there are ten ways
! to get a pair of %jokers that may he
! called aces. az will be seen If We lay
| the five jokers ont in the form al -
| lentagon, each sid and each diagonal
| of which will give ,s a different pair,
In addition to this we RAJ combine
| any natural acc with any OF the iiN"
| jokers. giving twenty more pairs, all
called aces. ~ thirty in all. ~ against
| SIX natural pairs. Therefore il is iiv"
, times as hard to get the natural pair,
and ii must outrank the pairs mad"
| with jokcrs in the showdown.
The same reasoning applies To three
| of a kind. to Straights, nlshcs and all
| the higher hands. with the me eN-
..,.t.n - ., hand that il oil tnlnya