Adventure, December 3, 1920 — page 130: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

120 month, an’ fifty sticks er sich matter o’ dinna- mite, an’ ef ole Twospot’s back ain’t plum’ healed yit, git us another jack. Better git another’n anyhow. I aim fer to do some packin’ th’ nex’ time we pilgrims down from th’ hills. An’ don’t git over two thousan’ dollars’ wuth o’ ammynition fer that new gun 0’ yore’n.” Another whistle-blast cut the flow of Andy’s instructions. A network of cattle-corrals and loading-chutes framed itself in the car window and slid slowly by. The screeching brakes bit into the wheels and the train jolted to a stop. Giltedge had arrived. IT WAS about four o’clock when Slim next came across his train acquaintance. Im the back end of the Paradise Saloon McGowan sat at a poker-table with a corporal’s guard of the tavern’s habitués. » “Helle,” he hailed. “Finished up with your business?” “Test about.” Again the diffident grin. “Findin’ time heavy on yo’ hands?” McGewan crooked a finger at the barkeeper, and when that worthy had set forth glasses and a bottle, mvited Slim to refreshments. Slim refreshed, and McGowan confessed ability in aiding tempus to fugit. “T ean always pass the time,” he said, “where there are cards and chips and men. Sit m. I’ve still got about two hours to kill.” Slim greeted the other players affably. “ "Lo, Jim; howdy Red,” and tured again to McGowan. “Why, I wouldn’t mind takin’ a hand myself, but ef I ’uz to lose as much as a dime, ole Andy ’d never git over it. That there Chey- enne fy-asco o’ mine’s goin’ to pervide him with eomversation fer six months any- way.” fi ‘Shucks,” from the skeptical Red. “Ole Andy clueks aroun’ you like a old-maid hen with a Easter aig, but any durn fool thing you take a notion to do is jest about the proper caper with Andy.” “Aw, come on in.” Thus Jim. ‘This here three-hand stud’s a-gitt’n’ old. I ain’t had higher than a ten in the hole till yit. Drag up a cheer an’ we'll make her a draw game.” McGowan pushed a chair forward and Slim slid into it. The tide of fortune ebbed and flowed calmly and serenely. The stakes were small, the betting light. The Paradise’s nightly rush of business had not begun, and the spectators were few and unin- terested, A half-heur passed—an hour, and Red with maledictions on the three queens which had tempted him into calling Slim’s three kings, shoved back his chair: Adventure “Fight dollars is enough to lose in this here piker game,” he said. “Which likewise hit leaves me broke till pay-day.” Shortly afterward Jim paid his remaining few chips for the privilege of drawing to a four- card straight flush. He filled neither straight nor flush, and with his fellow pauper, wandered over to the bar. ‘Slim and McGowan faced each other across the table. “Red’s eight and Jim’s thirteen is twenty- one dollars we’ve won between us. Pretty evenly divided, too.” McGowan estimated the stacks. “Do you still crave action?” Slim glanced at the clock above the bar. “Well, she’s still fawty-five minutes till yore train-time,” he said sociably, “‘an’ I hate to dee-prive you 0’ the onlies’ way you got 0’ passin’ time. But two-handed draw is a purty slow proposition. Mighty seldom git any hands out.” “Tt isn’t the cards you get, but the play you get on them,”’ McGowan said sententiously. “Two-handed draw can be developed into a he-game, that is,”’ a slight sneer crept into his suave tones, “‘if the players have any money to bet and the nerve to bet it.” A flush o’erspread Slim’s freckles. “T reckon I got the money,” he said. ‘‘When I play cyards, hit’s understood that what I got in my pocket I plays back o’ my stack.” “How much have you got in your pocket?” McGowan’s sneer was more pronounced and offensing. “Fe-liminatin’ the casualties at Cheyenne and the high cost o’ livin’ here,”—Slim riffled through the remaining bills in the ‘“Beller- donner’ roll—‘‘she now stands about thirty-two hunderd and some odd dollars, ef that would int’rust you.” McGowan drew forth a plethoric wallet. “T think,” he said, rapidly estimating the contents, “that I can comfortably cover that. Yes, and a little over. No limit?’ He raised his eyebrows. “Sky,” said Slim. “Deal.” NOW the law of permutations and the rules of choice clearly demonstrate that necessity a slow game. Under no conceivable circumstances can there be more than nineteen cards out at a time—legitimately—and these few seldom produce hands of sufficient value to warrant a battle. But, being inflexible, the law of permutations and the rules of choice and chance make no allowances for contingencies. The substitution of skill for luck, for instance; and science for chance. By skill and science is not necessarily meant manual dexterity alone. _ Poker is anciently founded upon a sound GEomichbooks two-handed draw poker is in fact and of, com