XVII AN EXTRA ACE

“Speakin’ by an’ large,” said old man Greenhut, as he bit off the end of a fresh cigar and settled himself in his favourite seat at the window, “there ain’t no question but what the game o’ draw-poker is about as nigh perfect as anything that was ever devised by the mind o’ man, an’ developed by the constant study o’ countless generations. They say there ain’t no record o’ poker bein’ played in former ages, an’ that faro was played hundreds of thousands of years ago, when a feller named Faro was King of Egypt, but it stands to reason there ain’t no truth in that. Like enough faro is a old game. I ain’t a-sayin’ nothin’ against faro. It suits them that likes it, but it’s gamblin’, an’ naturally it belongs to the heathen that started it.

“But poker’s teetotally different. No such system as that of draw-poker ever growed up in a night like Jonah’s gourd, nor it wa’n’t put together by no single set o’ fellers. Stands to reason it’s the crownin’ development of all the civilization the world ever seen. An’ it don’t seem likely, now that the straight an’ the straight flush has been discovered, an’ universally recognized, that there’s ever goin’ to be no changes into the game. It’s perfect as it is, an’ there ain’t no chanst o’ makin’ it any more perfect.

“An’ yet there is times when even the best players is obliged to rely on outside influences to help ’em out o’ some great emergency o’ the game. That ain’t no fault o’ the game, for as I said, the game is all right, but it goes to show that a man as relies on on’y one thing is goin’ to get left when he stacks up against some feller that relies on the same thing an’ has something else up his sleeve besides. An’ that there somethin’ else is got to be more’n a knowledge o’ cards.

“O’ course if a man reely understands the game as he’d oughter, an’ can handle the cards so’s to give himself what he needs in the draw when it comes to a desprit struggle between him an’ the other feller, an’ can read the backs o’ the cards well enough to have a good general idee o’ what the other feller is holdin’, why he can worry along under ordinary circumstances so’s he can hold his own most o’ the time, an’ make enough over from time to time to pay his livin’ expenses. But that’s all a part o’ draw-poker, same as it’s a part o’ the game not to be found out when you’re obliged to change the natural order o’ the cards. There is folks that has prejudices against them things, an’ if a man is clumsy enough to get found out, why, o’ course he’s goin’ to get hisself in more or less trouble, but I maintain so long as they’re done slick enough to not be seen, they are as legitimate as anything else in draw-poker. That’s the way Arkansas City has come to have the reputation it has. There’s some o’ the slickest players on the river right there in that town, an’ nobody has ever caught ’em usin’ marked cards, or holdin’ out, or dealin’ out o’ the middle or off’n the bottom of the deck.

“But what I mean about outside influences is entirely different. There comes a time, sometimes, when a man is obliged to think quick an’ act quick in order to keep some unscrupulous stranger from sweepin’ away all his hard-earned winnin’s in one fell pot. At such times even a thorough knowledge o’ poker ain’t a goin’ to save a man thouten he’s quick enough to think an’ has sand enough to act on the instant.

“There was an instance o’ that in Arkansas City the time when Hank Fairfax an’ his side-partner, Billy Overton, come up here from Vicksburg to do up the town, an’ come so near doin’ it. It were a great night, an’ on’y for Sam Pearsall’s presence o’ mind an’ prompt action I reckon we’d ha’ lost prestige right then an’ there.

“There couldn’t no one find fault with Hank an’ his partner, for they come in like men an’ said, open an’ above board, just what they’d come for. Hank put it kind o’ brutal, but he was fair an’ square about it. He said: ‘We Vicksburg sports is plumb tired hearin’ about Arkansas City poker, an’ Billy an’ I has come to give you jays a few lessons on how the game reely ought to be played. If any of you has the sand to play up against the real thing, now’s your time, but this ain’t no crossroads proposition. We are out for the stuff an’ we propose to carry it back with us.’

“Well, you know there ain’t nobody from nowhere that can let out a yawp like that in Arkansas City without bein’ took up sudden. ’Twa’n’t eight minutes by the clock after he’d peeped, afore him an’ Billy an’ Sam Pearsall an’ Jake Winterbottom an’ Joe Bassett was sittin’ ’round the table countin’ out their chips. They each put up a thousand an’ made it a table stakes game. ‘We didn’t come here to play old maid,’ said Billy, when somebody asked what the game should be. ‘Let’s have somethin’ worth playin’ for,’ he says, an’ they was all agreed.

“Well, just naturally they all played right up under their collar buttons at first, bein’ anxious to get on to one another’s play. There hadn’t none of our boys even played with Fairfax, but they all knowed him by reputation as one o’ the slickest players in Mississippi, an’ they wa’n’t takin’ no chances on his deal. Overton we didn’t none of us know much about, ’ceptin’ he had the name o’ bein’ a cool hand in a quarrel and a bad man in a fight. We knowed he played poker, course, just as everybody does, but we hadn’t heard o’ his bein’ counted no crack player, such as Hank would be sure to have with him, an’ we was a little slow, too, about sizin’ him up, not knowin’ what his particular graft might be.

“Bein’ for them reasons a trifle more cautious than usual, the boys, as I said, was slow about startin’ in, an’ any way the cards ran small for awhile, but all of a sudden there was somethin’ doin’ on Winterbottom’s deal. It was a jack-pot with thirty dollars in it, an’ Hank havin’ first say, opened it for thirty. Pearsall, he came next an’ he come in. Bassett was the next player an’ he raised it thirty. Overton made it thirty more and Winterbottom h’isted it fifty. Fairfax raised it a hundred an’ Pearsall says: ‘I didn’t want to raise it the first time round for fear o’ scarin’ some of ye out, but as long as I’ve got you all hooked,’ he says, ‘it’ll cost ye two hundred more to draw cards.’

“Just naturally I was lookin’ for some of ’em to drop out after that kind o’ play, but every one of ’em stayed. There wa’n’t no more raisin’ done. I reckon they all thought four hundred an’ forty dollars apiece was enough to put up before the draw, which sure it was in a game o’ that size.

“When it come to the draw there was another surprise. Every man at the table stood pat. Well, just naturally it were pretty thin ice to dance on, an’ nobody seemed to know for a minute or two just how to bet, havin’ nothin’ to guide him but his own hand and the fact that there was four pat hands out against it.

“Fairfax, o’ course, knowed just what to do. He put up a white chip. There was no doubt about his havin’ a chance to play later, an’ he were easy. Pearsall studied a bit, but finally he decided to wait, too, havin’ declared hisself before the draw, so he chipped along. Bassett wasn’t raisin’, neither, for he knowed Pearsall’s play pretty well, an’ havin’ only a small flush he didn’t feel strong, so he chipped along.

“That brought it up to Overton again, an’ he, thinkin’, I reckon, that it was up to him to help Fairfax along whether his own hand was good or not, put up a hundred dollars. It were a queer bet, but I sized it up for the beginnin’ of a seesaw in case Fairfax should want one. That might not ha’ been what was in his mind, but I reckon ’twa’n’t far out o’ the way.

“Winterbottom seen the raise. He were lookin’ for more developments, an’ he wa’n’t ready to play his hand very strong till he found out what was doin’. It were extra cautious play all round, with the advantage lyin’ between Fairfax an’ Pearsall, but mostly on Pearsall’s side.

“Fairfax put up two hundred an’ I seen he were ready for a seesaw. I don’t know what might ha’ happened if there’d been more money on the table, but Pearsall saw his opportunity an’ grabbed it. He counted his chips an’ findin’ six hundred in front of him, threw it all in the pot.

“Bassett throwed down his flush like a man, an’ Overton called for a show for his pile, which wa’n’t quite big enough for a call. That put it up to Winterbottom, an’ he skinned his hand over again, thinkin’ mighty hard. He had a full hand an’ money enough to raise. An’ more than that, he’d dealt the cards hisself, so he wa’n’t worried none on that account, but finally he just made good. He said to me afterward, ‘I would ha’ raised,’ he says, ‘but I reckoned Fairfax was goin’ to raise again, an’ the others was all in, so I gave him the chance.’

“But Fairfax was as rattled as the rest of ’em was, an’ he only called. Then it come out that there was two flushes an’ two fulls in the game, not reckonin’ the flush that Bassett had throwed down. Winterbottom’s flush beat Overton’s, bein’ ace high, an’ Pearsall’s ace full o’ course beat Fairfax’s jack full.

“It were a body blow for fair. Fairfax an’ Overton seen they’d overplayed their hands, an’ they was sore enough to make a beef about it, on’y they knowed it were too late. There wa’n’t nothin’ to say, ’thouten they’d kicked on Jake’s dealin’, an’ they couldn’t do that after they’d played the hand an’ lost. The on’y thing they c’d do was to quit or put up again. They wa’n’t quittin’, so they put up another thousand apiece an’ played along. Bassett had chips left an’ Pearsall was on velvet.

“There wa’n’t no heavy play again right away, but luck run to the Vicksburg fellers for awhile, so’s’t they picked up a few hundred in the next half-hour, mostly on pots they raked in without a call. Our boys was playin’ as careful as they was an’ was layin’ for a chanst at ’em.

“Bimeby then comes a hand where Fairfax an’ Bassett did some crisscross business. Bassett had been playin’ close f’m the first, an’ he had pretty near all o’ his original wad left, spite o’ what he’d lost on that flush, so when he caught three deuces on Pearsall’s deal an’ it were a jack-pot that had been pretty well fattened, he just opened it for fifty without much fear o’ the consequences. All the others laid down except Fairfax, an’ he come in on a pair of aces. He took three cards, but Bassett only drawed one. ’Twa’n’t extry good play, for his threes wa’n’t big enough to play ’em very strong ’thouten he was goin’ to bluff, an’ he might better ha’ drawed two cards, relyin’ on Fairfax thinkin’ his threes was bigger’n they was, but luck was with him in the draw ’n’ he catched the other deuce.

“Just naturally he felt good, an’ thinkin’ mebbe Fairfax might ha’ bettered an’ might raise, he throwed in a chip.

“Fairfax fumbled his cards a minute afore he picked ’em up. I don’t know whether he were a-studyin’ or whether it were a accident, but everybody noticed it, an’ it were lucky they did, as things turned out. But when he did pick up his hands he smiled a bit an’ throwed two fifty in the pot.

“That were just what Bassett were looking for, an’ he shoved all his chips to the centre o’ the table without countin’ ’em. O’ course Fairfax couldn’t raise no more; but he counted up, an’ findin’ it took six hundred to call, he called.

“Bassett showed down his four deuces an’ says: ‘I reckon that’s good,’ an’ he reached for the pot, but Fairfax says, ‘Hold on. That’s a pretty good hand, but aces’ll beat it if you have enough of ’em,’ and he showed down four aces.

“Right there was when Sam Pearsall showed his resources. O’ course, so fur as poker goes, that is, so fur as the reglar game goes, Fairfax won the pot all right, but, as I was sayin’, there is things outside o’ the reglar game that a man can rely on in a emergency if he’s quick to think an’ quick to act, an’ Sam were always as quick as a cat.

“I don’t know how it happened that Sam had a ace o’ diamonds hid away somewheres, but they’d changed the deck several times, an’ I reckon he must ha’ thought it might come in handy to figger on, or somethin’ o’ that sort. Anyway, he had it, an’ it were the same pattern back as the deck they was playin’ with. So he speaks up quick. ‘Hold on you,’ he says. ‘There’s somethin’ wrong here. I discarded the ace o’ diamonds,’ he says, an’ reachin’ over quick, he turns the discard pile face up, an’ spreadin’ out the cards, sure enough there were the ace.

“O’ course that queered Fairfax’s hand right away. They counted the cards, an’ sure enough there were fifty-three cards in the deck. Just naturally Fairfax an’ Overton smelled a mice, an’ they called on me to bring back the cards I’d gathered up every time they’d called for a new deck, an’ I did it.

“They picked out the deck o’ the same pattern they was usin’ an’ counted that, an’ just naturally they found fifty-one cards in it, but no ace o’ diamonds. It was clear enough where the card had come from, but the question was how it come where it was, an’ there was no way o’ tellin’ whether the missin’ card was the one that Fairfax held in his hand, or whether it was the one that Pearsall had showed in the discard pile.

“There wa’n’t much said. Everybody remembered how Fairfax had fumbled his cards, but nobody cared to say nothin’ about it, for there wa’n’t no use o’ havin’ to fight with a man like Fairfax when Overton was along, specially as the pot had to be divided anyhow. It were a foul deck beyond a question, and there wa’n’t no dispute when Bassett took back his chips.

“Fairfax were mad clear through, though. He didn’t say much, but he got up an’ reckoned he didn’t care to play no more in a game where four aces wa’n’t good. It wa’n’t really what one would have expected from a dead game sport such as he had the name o’ bein’, but we had the satisfaction o’ seein’ him an’ Overton go back to Vicksburg without makin’ their bluff good, even if they didn’t leave their money behind ’em.

“Which goes to show, as I said, that there is times when a man has to rely on outside influences even in playin’ poker.”