CHAPTER X.
A HOT OPENING.
“What’s the limit?” asked Harmford. “What sort of a game are we going to play?”
“What would you suggest?” inquired Hank.
“Five-cent ante and quarter limit is good enough for me.”
“Tut! tut! tut!” cried Hank. “That’s a piker’s game. You can’t play poker with that sort of a limit. If you attempt to make a bluff, everybody’ll call you for a quarter. If you open a pot, everybody’ll stay in on short pairs. Isn’t that right, Arlington?”
“I’ve noticed,” answered Chester, “that a fellow generally loses as much with a five-cent ante and a quarter limit as he does with the same ante and a dollar limit—that is, if he knows how to play poker. The dollar limit really makes it a good game.”
“Whew!” whistled Harmford; “that’s pretty near the roof for me. Let me see, I don’t believe I’ve got more than twenty-five or thirty dollars in my clothes.”
“That’s good while it lasts,” grinned Hanks.
“Then it’s settled as a dollar limit, is it?” said Chet. “We’ll call the blue chips a dollar, the reds a quarter, and the whites a nickel. I’ll be the banker. We’ll take ten dollars’ worth of chips, each of us, to begin with.”
“Better take enough,” suggested Hanks. “Ten dollars’ worth wouldn’t last a fellow long if he happened to get a good hand and found himself bucking against some one else. Why don’t we take twenty-five dollars’ worth to start with?”