The Bemidji daily pioneer., 1920-02-04
HAD SURE THING
AT STUD Poker
Wealthy New Yorker Said to
Have Cleaned Up an In
menSe Sum.
PLAYED WITH MARKED CARDS

vbctimo Finally "Got vice., ana
Evsned Things Up Slightly by Ad-
nnlnisterIna a Beating After Ex-
posing His Came.
New York.-A group OF screen. mag
mates and music publishers along
Broadway has been fleeced out Of
@65A00O by a wealthy manufacturer
with a deck Of marked cards, whom
they admitted to their private games.
He was finally detected and thrown
cut Of the house Of the man who
caught him. The World prints the
story, calling the feecer Mr.. Trimmer
and the other man Mr.. Screen. 1t as
~serts it has their real names.
For q considerable time a group Of
twelve or fourteen men, all Of ample
means, have been playing stud poker.
The Wealthy Victims.
There were Mr.. Screen, big picture
promoter and the husband Of one OF
the prettiest and most talented stars;
Mr.. Flickers, Of equal rank in cellu-
1oid productions; Mr.. Circuit, who
owns a flock Of theaters; Mr.. Ragg,
who receives immense royalties from
his song compositions, and others quite
as well known in their respective
2elds.
Last summer, at Far Rockaway and
Arverne, their ranks were augmented
by Mr.. Trimmer. He is 4 manufac-
turer on an immense scale Of q certain
article Of womenB wear, and 10 gen.
orally known as q millionaire.
They Thought i Was Luck.
Mr.. Trimmer's "uncanny luck" as
the other players called it, was notice
able from the very start. In one ses-
sion, for instance, which began on
a Saturday night and continued into
Sunday, he cleaned up more than &40,-
600.
The daring of Mr.. Trimmer's play
was what interested the others more
than anything else. He would make
bets against seemingly impossible
sdds-and win them.
MI. Trimmer always knew what the
ether fellows secret card was, when
he was the dealer, and he always won.
Also he always knew, when he held
the deck, what card his opponent
would get next, and what card he
<Trimmer) was going to get next, for
his cards were what is known to gam
blers as "readers.'
4 Transparent Mystery.
The design on the back Of them
which meant nothing to others-told
him exactly what denomination each
pasteboard was.
At last, suspicion intruded, and one
Of the other men at a party which
Trimmer had arranged pocketed q
deck of Trimmer's cards and took
them to professional gambler for e1-
animation.
They're readers" said the profess
slonal. At the corner of each card. on
the back, was a design composed Of
four heur-de-lis-the three leafed
flower Of France.
If the right hand petal Of the flower
at the upper right hand Of the group
was heavily shaded the card was an
ace. If the center petal Of that par
ticular flower was accentuated, it was
king; if the shading was on the left
hand petal it was n queen.
Even Deuce 10 Protected.
There were four flowers. each with
three petals. The shadings, therefore,
stood for II different cards, according
to where they were placed. these cards
ranging down from the ace to the
deuce. If no petal was shaded the
card was the deuce.
An exposure was planned at
Screens house. There were eight
players. Trimmer. on a few hands OF
square cards. lost $3.50. Then he
produced a deck Of his sort. As soon
as Screen saw the marked cards he
exposed the cheat to his guests and
proceeded to beat Trimmer up, winding
up by throwing him out Of the house.