The Widow, Or Kitty In Poker

“If this be worth your hearing, mark it.”
Cymbeline. Act I., Scene 1st.

By the widow, or as it is more commonly known as “kitty,” is meant a percentage, taken in chips at certain occasions during the game of poker. This percentage may be put to the account of the club where the game is being played, and defrays the cost of cards, use of chips, gas, attendance, etc. The kitty may, however, be introduced .when no expenses occur. When threes or better are made on a called hand, or when jack-pots are played, one chip is taken from the pool and put aside. These chips amount to quite a number at the end of the game. Then they may be either divided among the players or made into jack-pots, as a consola­tion stake, and so wind up the game.

Buck

“A furtherer in the act.”
Tempest. Act V., Scene 1st.

Originally the buck was a pocket-knife passing always to the left, indicating only the deal. Perhaps from the handle of the knife being of buckhorn the term is derived. By a process of evolution, the buck in poker is made sometimes a representative of value, and can be put up by the age. It may designate a certain number of chips, say, for instance, five. Then, if the age makes his blind good, he, puts up five more chips. The rest of the players, when they come in, do the same thing. The person who wins it, when he is the age puts up the buck. When the game is over, the person who has issued the buck redeems it, at the value he put on it.

In some cases the buck is used in order to induce the jack-pot,. of, course by prior agree­ment. Whoever has the buck, when he deals puts it on the table with two or more chips, and then all contribute to making a jack-pot. Who­ever wins the jack-pot, when it is his turn to deal puts it up, and another jack-pot is in order. Too many jack-pots in a game, or forced con­tributions, destroy the character of poker. They come in sufficient frequency under ordinary circumstances.

A knife is not an obligatory buck. In the Far West a revolver on the table sometimes serves the purpose of a buck.

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