Poker Strategies
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
Practice Matters
Since Poker at the time was played with cash (Poker chips were
Since Texas Hold'em Poker at the time was played with cash (Poker chips were unknown then), at the end of the game no settlements were required, winners taking their Texas Hold'em Poker winnings and losers lamenting their losses. That is, with the exception of marker side bets placed on high spades, which is betting to see who was dealt the highest-rank spade card on the first dealt upcard of the Stud hand. This wagering began at a hundred dollars a hand and rose rapidly to five and ten thousand a hand. The principals involved in the spade side bets were Rothstein, McManus, Thompson, Raymond and Bernstein.
When it came time to settle the spade-bet markers on January 9 at
When it came time to settle the spade-bet markers on January 9 at the game's end, Rothstein owed Nigger Nate Raymond $219,000, $70,000 to Joe Bernstein and $30,000 to Titanic Thompson. Meyer and Sam Boston played only for an hour or so and left the game a couple of hundred dollars winners. George McManus, who stayed to the end, claimed he had lost $51,000 in cash, and Martin Bowe, who went broke after a couple hours of play, maintained he had lost $5,700 in cash.