THE SPORTS OF ARKANSAS CITY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7293, 4 January 1902, Page 2

THE SPORTS OF ARKANSAS CITY.

ONLY ONE SURE WAY TO WIN, (Prom the Reminiscences of Old. Man Greenlrat.) (New Tork Sun.) " Tears to me," said old man Greenhut, as he leaned his elbows on the bar and pulled viciously at a very black cigar to keep it alight, "like there was a monstrous lot o' foolishness talked about the gam© o' draw poker. Fellers'll tell you •with, tears in their mouth about gettin' beat at the game an' .about the 'hard mess .of luck they have an' how some ot!her player'll always told over 'em or pull out against their pat flushes an' wipe up the floor with 'em when they'd oughter have the pot cinched' according to all laws. Oh! there ain't no end to hard luck ' stories. They're thicker than cold molasses, but there hain't, no sense into '<em. 0' course, a man may get hit hard! now an' again when he ain't lookih' for it— we may get kicked by a mule sometimes whenrhe thinks he's out. o' the mule's seaoh ; but a man that gets kicked all thjfe time is either a jackass or els*e he don'fT know mules. - " So with poker; No man that knows poker is goin' "to get beat at it all the time, an' the man that does get beat ninetimes out o' t«n beats 'hisself. 'Taint the other fellers' play 'half as much as it is takin' fool chances that makes men walk home 'stead o' takin' the cars. There's a heap o' talk about one man playin' better poker than another man, but my experience tells me that the principal trouble is not that one man plays better than another, but that one man don't play so well' as another. An' it stands to reason that when a man don't play as well as the other feller he's ,goin' to beat hisself. l "There was Jake Wintexbofctom," con-. \ timied the old man as he straightened himself up and walked around) to hie favourite seat by the window: Winterbottom wasn't in the room at the time, or probably Greenhut would not have mentioned ihim by name. "There was Jake Winterbottom. Jake is a powerful good player, now, an' I reckon he can hold! (his end up in the most select circles. He's played steady with, the best talent of Arkansas City for a good many yeans, an' any man that can do that don't have to have no trepidation about ttettin' in with the best of 'em. "But I remember the time when Jake was about the easiest proposition there was to be found all up an' down the river. 'Peared like there want no possible way o' losin* money at the game that he hadn't , studied out an' practised 'till he had ( all down pat. He cd lay down three of a kind against aces up with, the same monb'tonous regularity thafc he'd bet" a straight against a full. An' he didn't have no sense about the draw. He'd pull for a flush every time he got four of a suit, an' sometimes when he had only three, no matter what the odds was in the bettin'. An' when he did happen to have the winnin' hand, if he bet it at all, which he wouldn't half the time, he never got nothin' to speak out of it. ',-■'-'. "I used to reason with. him. There want no reason as I know on why I should, for he want nothin' to me, more'n a fair, average customer, but somehow or other I allus cottoned to Jake f'm the time he struck the town, till he'd come to be recognised as one o' the leadin* citizens. Teared like he made a impression on me f'm the first. Anyway, I felt kind o'. sorry to see him everlastin'ly buckin' up agiii a game that was too much for him, an' I told him so, many's the time. '"'Jake,' I used to say .to him, 'you hain't no business playin' with the Arkansas City crowd. They'll do you, sure.' But he'd always say : ' Greenhut, I'm learnin', an' learnin' is allus expensive. One o' these days I'll do 'em.' So I let him alone. " 'Peared like he learned all of a sudden. He'd been pikin' along, playin' a fiddlin' game whenever he got a chance to stick his nose in, 'but givin' no evidence o' talent till this one night when there "was two strangers come in to do the talent. Jake was here an 1 he had about 7dol in his clothes when they made up a table stake game an' each man put up 50dol. Tfr&re was six playin', too, so there was 300dol on the table when they started. Jake, he locked on for a while an' never peeped. Didn't think he'd be let in an' consequent said nottiin' till three of the home talent dropped out, busted. That left Sam Pearsail playin' agin the two strangers, 'an' he were nervous. He want much more'n holdin' his own, an' he looked 'round to see if there wasn't somebody to. set in. Joe Bassett an' Jim Blaisdell was willin' I enough, but they had no money left, an' { Jake seem' how things stood he spoke up kind o' timid like, an' he says: 'I don't •reckon I'd lose more'n a few minutes, but I'll take a band if you'll let me play for what I've got.' i "Sam epoke up quick an' says, 'I hain't no objections,' an' the two strangers says kind o' careless, ' Oh, that's all right,' so dowA he sets. Bub they was disgusted enough when they seen what his pile was. H« dug up 7dol an' two bits, an' bought his chips an' took a -hand. "It were a dollar jack an' one o' the strangers opened it for 4dol, an' Jake be I throw'd down. The stranger he won it, 1 an' the next deal it were Jack's ante. He I put up two bits, call four, and the others I all come in an'* he wouldn't make good. 1 That left Ihim just 6dol, 'but it were his deal. I " When I seen that deal I kind o' says to myself that mebbe I'd sorter mistook Winterbottom, an' mebbe he'd been practisin' «ome. It were Pearsall's ante, an' ihe made it a . dollar to play. The first stranger, he were a little cross-eyed man, he come in, an' the other feller raised it two dollars. Jake he made good, takin' three dollars, an' Sam he raised it five. Then the cross-eyed man made it five more to play, an' the other one stayed, an' Jake called for a sight for his pile. "Sam took two card's an' the cross-eyed man took one. The next man took two, an' Jake took two. Well, they all filled. Sam mode a full, the cross-eyed man filled a flush, though it want the straight flush he were after ; the next man made a seven full, Sam's bein' nines, an 1 Jake caught a fourth d«uce. " O' course, all the bettin' was amongst the other three, Jake on'y bavin' a show for th c twenty-four dollars his six called tfor, but Sam raked in considerable over a hundred on the Bhowdowh. " The next pot were a jack on the fours, an' Sam made it five dollars to play. Neither one o' the strangers opened, so it were up to Jake, an' be busted it for nineteen dollars, bein' his pile. Sam stayed out an' the cross-eyed man came in, but he failed to fill, an' Jake was on velvet with fortyeight dollars in front of him, havin' opened on two jacks. " There was nothin' doin' on the next deal, so that made it a dollar jack, an' Jake's first say. He opened it again for

the size o' the pot an' got Ousted twice, so it cost (him twenty more to play. When it come to the draw he said he reckoned he'd split his openers, an' he laid aside a queen, holdin' up four spades. " Well that made a rippin' good pot, for he filled his flush an' bet all 'he had before he looked! at his draw. Just naturally Pearsall an' the cross-eyed man both saw the bet, Sam havin' three aces an' the other man three kings. " By this time they was all gettin' pretty core to think they'd let Jake in with his Td'ol, but it were too late to kick an' when it come to his deal again, as ifc were, the nexb 'hand, I says to myself that I'd just albou't make up my mind accordin' to what he dCdl with the cards. If he was to lose, I'd consider it a streak o' luck that he'd been havin', but if he was to deal 'em as well as he ihad afore, I'd conclude ( that ho wasa-learnin' the game. " Well, after that deal was over, I never had no more doubts about Winterbottom. 0' course, havin' as much money as he had to play with, 'twan't necessary npi proper to look after Sam's interests in 'he pot, so he didn't deal Sam nothin', but he gave the cross-eyed man three aces an' the other feller a pat straight, takin' care to have a seven spot handy when it would jusfc fit into his sevens up on the draw. An' the betfcin' jusfc come so's't he had a chance to give the second raise, an' he scooped about a hundred an' forty dollars on that pot. . * " That left him winnin' 'to? able near all there was on the.-t-a.bie', but the two strangers they both dug, an' Sam stayed along with about 30dol that he had left, an' the game went on. " But, Lord bless ye, them fellers didn't have no show. They couldn't win, no matter what they did, an' the game broke up in about twenty minutes with Pearsall 40dol ahead, an' Jake winnin' all the other money in sight. "1 ast him. about it next day, an' he told me that he'd been a.studyin' the game all the time since he'd first begun to play, an' the way he sized it up it were no use foT a man to bet on any cards unless he had a pretty good notion what was out against him. 'Some fellers seems to know id by instinct,' he says, 'an' some has luck, but I never had no luck to speak of, an' when I come to tryin' to judge of another man's cards by instinct, I didn't nev«r seem to strike it right, so I made up my mind that the on'y thing for me to do was to study the cards an' get so's't I cd tell 'em by the feelin'. It takes a heap o 'work learnin', but I worked, an' if I do say ir, Greenhut, I don't reckon there's any man on the river that can come nearer'n I can, to tellin 1 what cards is put, specially when I've dealt 'em.' " Well, just naturally, a man with such talents as that ain't agoin* to have his light hid under no bushel basket not for very long. The boys reco'nised his talents ts - quick as I did, an' there ain't no man in Arkansas City as is more respected an' more thought of than Jake isV The best of it is that he's square, an' don't never, play it low down on the home telent. Bub when it comes to a difficult proposition, such as sometimes has to be tackled when there's a couple of clever strangers in town, I, never feel safe thinkin' Jake Winterbottom is in the game. An' if he is, why tha strangers don't never get away with no alarmitf amount of Arkansas City money."