[5]
]PREFACE.
This pamphlet is issued for the purpose of inducing those who engage in this Great American Game of “Draw Poker,” to play only for amusement and pastime; and to expose those in our clubs and social card parties who are tricky, or disposed to cheat. Also to show to the American youth the dangers that beset their path when playing this fascinating game.
While we have treatises on this subject, by Blackbridge, “American Hoyle,” “Schenck,” and others,—all of whom teach the game, with the rules and laws that govern it,—it has been left for “Uncle George,” in a familiar, conversational manner, to “lay open” and expose this game as it is too often played—with its “lights and shadows,” its bright parts, and “ways that are dark.”
[7]
]UNCLE GEORGE
ON
DRAW POKER.
“
Rather late, my boy, when I heard your footsteps upon the stairs last evening,” said Uncle George to his nephew, while sitting at the breakfast-table on the morning of the 22d of February last.
“Yes, dear uncle, I acknowledge the corn. ‘I can not tell a lie,’ you know, on this the anniversary of the birth of our Great Uncle George, the Father of his Country, and especially while his portrait on the wall is now looking down upon me. The fact is, I accepted an invitation to dine with a few friends at Delmonico’s last evening, and after dinner a [8] ]proposition was made to have ‘a little game of draw’ for an hour or two; but the time passed so rapidly, that I confess it was among the ‘wee sma’ hours’ when we broke up. It was much later than I intended to have played, I assure you; but there seemed to be no time when all were ready to quit.”
“I know! I know! my boy. It’s the same ‘old story.’ Those who are losers are playing for ‘hunk,’ as they call it, and those who are winners are too gentlemanly to quit and break up the party. It was the same with your Uncle George fifty years ago. I suppose you mean ‘Draw Poker,’ my boy?”