The Games, the Gamblers, & the Great Gambling Halls of the Old West

Frontier Gambling

The Games, The Gamblers, & The Great Gambling Halls of the Old West

G.R. Williamson

First published 2011

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ISBN-13: 978-1453754122

ISBN-10: 1453754121

Front and Back Cover Design

By Elizabeth Layton

In Association with

Faro & Poker Sign

Courtesy

John Hovard (Red Horse Signs)

Dedicated To:

Lloyd and Vera Williamson

(Who never gambled on anything except their two sons)

Preface

Many years ago I had an elderly lady tell me, "If it weren't for a pair of fours I would not be here talking to you." When I asked her to explain what she meant, she went on to say that her grandmother had been won in a poker game in Mexico and that had her grandfather not won her as his wife her mother would have never been born. Then, with a tinkle in her eye and a sly grin she added, "Of course the fours were backed with a pair of aces."

Recently I heard another story very similar to this one but the elderly lady did not know the cards in the winning hand. It is hard to image that things like this occurred in the 1800's but they most definitely did – plus a lot more. Gambling played a major role in the destiny of many lives in the western frontier.

I once had a conversation with a very powerful ranch woman who told me how her grandfather kept his ranch from being taken over by creditors. According to her, he was down to his last money, approximately one thousand dollars. He knew the bank would not lend him any more money and that the loan officer was waiting for the note to come due so he could foreclose on the ranch. Her grandfather decided that he would risk it all in a high stakes poker game that was regularly played in a San Antonio hotel. After playing for fifteen hours straight, he returned to his ranch with enough money to hold off the creditors.

As a kid growing up I was told the legend of how the famous Texas ranching empire, the Four Sixes, got its name. Supposedly, this winning hand got the ranch started. Latter, I found out the account was a myth but it still makes a good story.

I was told by the descendants of the Vivian family in Dimmitt County, Texas that King Fisher was the major contributor to the building of the First Baptist Church. King Fisher was a noted gunfighter and rustler in the area during the 1870s. He was also an accomplished gambler and according to the Vivians (his wife's family), he was returning to his ranch stronghold on the Pendencia Creek in the notorious badlands of the "Nueces Strip" when he met several men loading building materials onto a wagon. When they told him that they were building a new church, Fisher pulled a roll of money from his coat and pitched it to the driver. He said that he had just won the five thousand dollars in a poker game and that he wanted them to use it on the church – with the stipulation that the donation would remain anonymous.

While a student at Texas University, I had a fraternity brother that was a professional gambler who paid for his schooling by working the poker tables at various illegal setups around the Austin area. In addition, he was an accomplished pool shark that could run a table or “just barely” beat an opponent – depending on the side bets. Another one of his specialties was playing pickup games with well-heeled Austin golfers and snagging “friendly wagers” with his expert sandbagging.

The guy was a wonder to watch at the poker table – he kept a perpetual sly grin on his face the entire time he was playing, winning or losing. I sat in on a few penny-ante poker games with him and got cleaned out each time. He finally took me aside and gave me some of the best advice I could have received on my future in gambling. He told me that I was the worse poker player he had seen and that I should never play poker for money – he could read every hand I held by watching me. I took his admonition to heart and it has stood me well over the passage of time; I have not lost another cent playing poker.

When I started doing historical research on Ben Thompson for my book, The Texas Pistoleers: Ben Thompson & King Fisher, I came across a large number of references to the card games, faro and Spanish monte. I had no idea how these games were played so I started a side trail of research on frontier gambling, amassing a large volume of material. Finally after a number of people asked me to describe how the games were played and why they are not seen in casinos today it became apparent that a book on frontier gambling might find a reading audience.

Covering the entire spectrum of gambling that was prevalent throughout the western frontier would take an enormous volume of work to do it justice. Rather, I chose to focus on the usual games of chance that could be found in saloons and gambling halls (often called “resorts”). I purposely omitted other very popular forms of wagering such as: horse racing, lotteries, cock fights, dog fights, shooting matches, prize fighting, and a long list of other forms of betting. The writer Herbert Asbury wrote a series of books that cover the various forms of American gambling where you can find extensive details on these games.

Also, I chose to highlight a small number of the most noted of the frontier gamblers and gambling palaces. The list of each is mountainous, far more than the average reader might want to dedicate reading time. I picked the players and gaming halls that I personally found the most interesting. Others might argue the failure to include specific characters or saloons but my goal was to provide an easily read, informative book without becoming an encyclopedic reference work.

Over the course of time, I began to listen to the everyday idioms and colloquialisms that have gambling origins and was astounded at how our vernacular conversations are permeated with them. Everyday, around the office or at the coffee shop you hear expressions like: oh you bet, luck of the draw, dollars to doughnuts, call a spade a spade, the cards are stacked against him, hedge your bets, got lost in the shuffle, up the ante, or he cashed in his chips. Then there is the ever popular cliché that someone “is not playing with a full deck.” Therefore, at risk of teetering on the brink of heresy, it is possible to submit, “Gambling is as much American as Mom and apple pie.”

Acknowledgments

In many ways, I think this book is homage to Robert DeArment who wrote Knights of the Green Cloth in 1982. Bob’s book on the professional gamblers that roamed the old west is a delight to read and probably provided the initial spark to my intense interest in the role that gambling played in the development of America. As I was planning the book, I told him that I hoped that my work would “stack up” well against his book. He smiled and gave me many words of encouragement. So thanks Bob, I needed your assurance that I was on the right track.

Bob is one of many others in the Wild West History Association I count on to steer me in the right direction and provide me with the accumulated experience of their many years of writing outstanding books on the American West. I am particularly grateful to Jan Devereaux for her research on the legitimacy of photos purported to be of Lottie Deno in her book, Pistols, Petticoats, & Poker.

I owe a great deal of thanks to Anne Beck, the great granddaughter of the Texas gambler Ben Thompson. She has compiled a vast amount of documentation on the life and times of Ben and his brother Billy.

On a technical, production level, I would like to thank Elizabeth Layton and Herring Printing for the book covers. In addition, I owe appreciation to John Hovard at Red Horse Signs for his kind permission to use the saloon sign on the front cover. Thanks to Clifford R. Caldwell's generosity, I had the use of one of his derringers for the back cover shot. Lisa Lach worked wonders on the photos of Ben Thompson's roulette table. Phil Houseal (fullhouseproductions.net) did an excellent job of copy editing.

In tribute to my favorite historians, I would like to acknowledge two special men that have meant so much to my enjoyment in exploring the enchanting world of recorded history. First is Will Durant who said, "History is mostly guessing; the rest is prejudice." The second is Stewart Holbrook who took pride in writing what he called "lowbrow" or "non-stuffed shirt history." His writings, sense of humor and social criticism also made him a sort of combination of Will Rogers, Mark Twain and H.L. Mencken.

I would also like to tip my hat to the long deceased ranch woman who told me stories about gambling in Uvalde County. At the time she was in her sixties but still dressed in high style, drove a pearl white Cadillac with a fire engine red leather interior, and carried a nickel plated automatic pistol in her alligator handbag.

In addition, I would like to thank my college classmate who used gambling to pay for his schooling and offered me sage advice. True to the gambler's tradition, he always traveled in style driving a white convertible with a beautiful woman at his side. In fairness to him, I will not use his name because like some of the Old West gamblers he settled down, married, had children, and became a prominent citizen in his community.

Finally, I would like to thank all the great story tellers in my life - my father, my grandfather, my uncles and all the rest of the family who loved a good story - even if it was true.

Frontier Gambling

Table of Contents

Preface iii

Acknowledgements VI

Introduction 1

Card Games 7

Dice Games 38

Wheel Games 50

One-Armed-Bandits 62

Keno 77

Gamblers 82

On-The- Square Players 106

Card Sharps and Con Men 194

Petticoat Dealers 236

Gambling Halls 262

Last Call 275

Frontier Gambling Glossary 276

Bibliography 282

Index 288

About The Author 293

Introduction

"The Texas cattle herder is a character with but few wants and meager ambition. His diet is principally plug and whisky and the occupation dearest to his heart is gambling." -- Topeka Commonwealth, 1871

ambling played a major role in the lives of the men that drove the western movement of Americans across the continent during the nineteenth century. Games of chance were dear to the hearts of not only cowboys but also gold miners, plantation owners, bankers, merchants, soldiers, trappers, buffalo hunters, muleskinners, and most of the other men of the American West, even including some preachers. Wherever there were men with money there was gambling – and most of it was crooked. Whether it was rigged, fixed, double-dealt, cold-decked, braced or otherwise manipulated - very little was left to luck and skill. Though there were some gamblers who were known as "on-the-square" or "legitimate", if that word can be used when referring to the players of the day, most used some form of "advantage" to win much more often than they lost. Some were not gamblers at all but mere con men skinning suckers as fast as they could find them.

With this in mind, exactly what were the casino games of chance played during the wild days of the West, what were the rules, and how were they played? Who were the major players and where did they ply their trade? How did they employ "tricks" to cheat the other players without being detected? Why did most of the games of the western frontier pass into oblivion and why are these same games not played in gambling casinos today? Though most of us think we have a fairly good running knowledge of Old West gambling, largely provided by the westerns of television and movies, this book takes a closer look at this integral facet of our history that provokes both condemnation and revelry. Leaving the moral issues of gambling to be defined and discussed by philosophers and theologians, this work explores the myth and lore that drove men to risk fortunes, big or small, on the turn of a card or the spin of a wheel.

Whether it was a game of poker played on a blanket or a faro bet placed in an elegant saloon, it is a safe bet to say that gambling fulfilled one of the basic needs of the early frontiersman – liquor, lust, and luck. Most settlements started with a small clump of buildings (quite often little more than tents) that usually included a general mercantile store, a livery stable or wagon yard, and a saloon. Then as the settlement grew, a few more business sprung up and more often than not additional saloons crowded in to provide the major form of entertainment available to the men of that era – games of chance. Unlike today with the plethora of entertainment choices provided by television, movies, computers and other technological devices, the frontiersman had very few choices as a diversion from his everyday toils. Most often, he was reduced to reading a book, chatting with friends, or playing a game. Books were often hard to come by and any game worth playing was worth wagering.