Stand Pat; Or, Poker Stories from the MississippiCurtis, David A.
General
Stand Pat; Or, Poker Stories from the Mississippi
Curtis, David A.
Poker players -- Fiction; Short stories, American
“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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account