A Lesson in Stud Poker

1895

It Cost the Tenderfoot All He Had to Learn That Four Aces Couldn't Be Beaten.

"Tell you what," said the passenger in the slouch hat and buckskin leggings, "this here country ain't what it used to be. Why, year before last I made $400 one night down in Denver in less than three hours."

"How was that?" inquired the nervous passenger.

"Playing stud poker," drawled the ex-gambler. "You see," he added, "it was just this way: The luck was all my way. I couldn't lose if I tried.

"Now, there is something queer about luck. I can almost always tell the minute I get in sight of a game whether luck is going to favor me or not. If luck is my way, I play for all I'm worth, but if it isn't then I quit.

"But about this particular night. Well, the luck, as I said before, was all my way. Twice I held four aces, and the last time I had three aces in sight and one down. The rest all dropped out but one tenderfoot chap. He had three jacks up and one down.

"I know the game was mine, of course, but I didn't want to scare him, so every time he boosted the pot for $5 I just h'isted it $1. Finally he shoved up $50, and I pushed out my pile.

"He said, 'You don't bluff me that way,' and pushed out his."

"Well, and what then happened?" asked the nervous one, with eager interest.

"Oh," replied the other carelessly, "I ran across him in a pawnshop next day. He had left his gold ticker in his room or I'd a-had that too." — New York Herald.