“As sure a card as ever won the set.”
Titus Andronicus. Act V., Scene 1st.
Whatever its origin, poker is now conceded to be one of the most intellectual, as it is doubtless the most fascinating, of card games. Attack and defense are in it developed to an amazing perfection, the opportunities of seizing strategic advantage being wonderful. There never was seen such a combination of logic and luck, of calculation and speculation. It has by some been declared the offspring of the famous and difficult English game of “Gleek,” which we know to be three hundred years old, while others describe it as a direct development from the English game of “Brag.” The derivation of the name from the old English “pot and vair” seems fanciful, but the striking analogy between the use of the poker terms “seeing” and “seeing you again,” or “raising,” and the “vying” and “re-vying,” or seeing and re-seeing referred to by Ben Jonson in “Every Man in His Humour” is notable and suggestive.
It would seem by all odds, therefore, to have sprung, like so much of what is best in America, from “the right little, tight little island.” Sir Walter Raleigh may have brought it over, and Captain John Smith may, in defiance of the legend, have won his life and Pocahontas’ hand by bluffing her old red father!
Baron Rothschild advised speculators: “Cut short your losses; let your profits run.” Poker is so admirable an exposition of human nature that it is fruitful of maxims. Play liberally with liberal players, and closely with close players.
Cable says: “A man who can play delightfully on a guitar and keep a knife in his boot would make an excellent poker player;” and it is just as well to remember that it is not at all necessary to talk: in making bets the simple pushing of the chips registers the bet. The father of American poker, General Bob Schenck, said: The main elements of success are good luck, good cards, plenty of cheek and good temper.” Richard Guerndale, in his “Poker Book,” adds, and “plenty of patience.” To these it is not misplaced here to add this: Push your luck when winning; stay out when losing, until a little better hand than the average comes to you.
Titus Andronicus. Act V., Scene 1st.
Whatever its origin, poker is now conceded to be one of the most intellectual, as it is doubtless the most fascinating, of card games. Attack and defense are in it developed to an amazing perfection, the opportunities of seizing strategic advantage being wonderful. There never was seen such a combination of logic and luck, of calculation and speculation. It has by some been declared the offspring of the famous and difficult English game of “Gleek,” which we know to be three hundred years old, while others describe it as a direct development from the English game of “Brag.” The derivation of the name from the old English “pot and vair” seems fanciful, but the striking analogy between the use of the poker terms “seeing” and “seeing you again,” or “raising,” and the “vying” and “re-vying,” or seeing and re-seeing referred to by Ben Jonson in “Every Man in His Humour” is notable and suggestive.
It would seem by all odds, therefore, to have sprung, like so much of what is best in America, from “the right little, tight little island.” Sir Walter Raleigh may have brought it over, and Captain John Smith may, in defiance of the legend, have won his life and Pocahontas’ hand by bluffing her old red father!
Baron Rothschild advised speculators: “Cut short your losses; let your profits run.” Poker is so admirable an exposition of human nature that it is fruitful of maxims. Play liberally with liberal players, and closely with close players.
Cable says: “A man who can play delightfully on a guitar and keep a knife in his boot would make an excellent poker player;” and it is just as well to remember that it is not at all necessary to talk: in making bets the simple pushing of the chips registers the bet. The father of American poker, General Bob Schenck, said: The main elements of success are good luck, good cards, plenty of cheek and good temper.” Richard Guerndale, in his “Poker Book,” adds, and “plenty of patience.” To these it is not misplaced here to add this: Push your luck when winning; stay out when losing, until a little better hand than the average comes to you.