§ 166 The Surest System Yet
This story has to do with a man describing a poker game which he was invited to join while visiting in a strange town.
“The first hand that was dealt,” he says, “I had threes. I opened the pot and one other man stayed. He drew one card. We bet back and forth for a while and finally he called. ‘I’ve got three of a kind,’ I said, and showed down my three nines. ‘I’ve got a straight—ten high,’ he says, and pitches his hand in the deck and reaches for the chips. ‘Hold on,’ I says, ‘I didn’t see what you had.’ He looks at me sort of surprised and the fellow who’s givin’ the party speaks up and says to me: ‘This is a gentleman’s game. If a man wins a pot here we never ask him to show his hand. We just take his word for it that he holds the winning cards and we let it go at that. That’s our rule.’”
“Did you keep on playing after that?” asks a bystander.
“Certainly I did,” says the first speaker.
“And did you win?”
“Did I win? Huh—the first pot was the only one I lost!”