Frontier Gambling

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

West

G.R. Williamson

First published 2011

Copyright © G.R. Williamson 2011

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyrights reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN-13: 978-1453754122ISBN-10: 1453754121

Front and Back Cover DesignBy Elizabeth LaytonIn Association with

Faro & Poker SignCourtesy

John Hovard (Red Horse Signs)

Dedicated To:

Lloyd and Vera Williamson

(Who never gambled on anything except their two sons)

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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

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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

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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Frontier GamblingTable of Contents

Preface iiiAcknowledgements VI

Introduction 1Card Games 7Dice Games 38Wheel Games 50One-Armed-Bandits 62Keno 77Gamblers 82On-The- Square Players 106Card Sharps and Con Men 194Petticoat Dealers 236Gambling Halls 262Last Call 275

Frontier Gambling Glossary 276Bibliography 282Index 288About The Author 293

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1Introduction

"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.

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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

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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. As western saloons evolved, a typical layout usually followed along these lines: an entrance foyer, the bar area with maybe a few card tables and billiards tables in the back. Traditionally, saloons were housed in a building that was longer than it was wide, with an overhanging awning covering the front entrance. Contrary to most of our movie images of saloons, they quite often did not have bat-wing doors; instead, one or more standard wooden doors with glass panels provided access from the street. Once inside the door, customers usually saw a long bar running down the right wall. The bar was usually a massive work of oak with a brass rail that provided a foot prop while standing for a drink. Here and there, a few spittoons enabled tobacco chewers to deposit their chaw before downing a shot of redeye. To the left were a few card tables and chairs strictly meant for gambling – all drinking was done standing up. When you could not manage the upright position any longer, you were told that you had had enough and go sleep it off. Over time, a class distinction developed among saloons in which there were "low dives" and "first class saloons" Gamblers were interested in the upscale saloons while conmen and sharps operated in the "skin houses" where drunks were sometimes allowed to sleep on the floor after having their pockets cleaned out. Usually the mark of a better saloon was the addition of gambling rooms to the rear or a gambling hall located in a second story above the saloon. This accommodated the serious gamblers where large amounts of cash exchanged hands over the green cloth tables. Saloon owners quickly found that they needed to offer more ways for customers to fill their coffers than simply selling liquor. Cigars and other tobacco products were introduced and some even provided variety theaters and painted women to boost their revenues but the real cash cow was gambling. As it evolved, saloon owners offered someone, usually a noted gambler, the gambling concession - with the saloon getting a percentage of the take. The better the location, the more well heeled the customers, and the professional expertise of an efficient gambling operation could mean sizeable profits for the owner. Besides location, reputation was everything in the saloon business. From the Mississippi River to the Barbary Coast of California one saloon tried to top the others with what they offered and who gambled there. Big name gamblers drew a crowd and this translated into bigger profits from liquor sales and gambling. Wyatt

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Earp, Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday, Luke Short, Ben Thompson, Swiftwater Bill Gates, Dick Clark, Rowdy Joe Lowe, and the rest of the old west's gambling superstars ran the gaming operations in most of the better saloons of the era. Customers flocked to these saloons to try their luck against the legends or simply watch the action. The fact that some of the big names in western gamblers were deadly gunfighters meant that the potential for violence was greater with these players – but sometimes the risk was worth the profits to be made with them running the tables. Most of these men got their start and reputations working the circuit of the Mississippi River boats, the railhead cattle towns of Kansas, or the boomtowns that popped up around gold or silver mining. The gunfighter Ben Thompson got his start by running the Bull's Head Saloon with partner Phil Coe in Ellsworth, Kansas. Ben's friend, Bat Masterson, also started his career in the cattle towns of Texas and Kansas. Wyatt Earp already had a reputation of a seasoned gambler when he took over the gambling operation at the Oriental Saloon in Tombstone, Arizona. Luke Short was such a draw that the White Elephant Saloon in Fort Worth added on an apartment for "Little Luke" and his consort to live in while he was running the tables for the saloon.

In general, these legendary gamblers were known as "legitimate" or that they played a fair game without cheating. Truth be told, all of them knew the methods employed by the "sharps" to clean the pockets of the other players at the table. They had to know these "tricks" in order to spot a cheater at their table. Did they ever use any of these advantages to increase their odds? Probably so but the public's perception of these men was that they ran a "square game". Of course the mere fact that the gamblers with a reputation of killing other men, "in self defense", reduced the chances of someone accusing them of cheating in a game.

In contrast, there was a sizable coterie of gambling specialists that relied on chicanery and the technology of the day to trim suckers at the tables. Some were known "sharps" while others posed as honest players until they were discovered cheating which required them to make a hasty departure to the next boomtown where they were not known. In addition, there were roving bands of con men that gave the appearance of being simple gamblers but in truth "never gave a sucker an even break." Foremost among these rogues was a Mississippi River boat gambler named George Devol who could play a legitimate game with unparalleled skill but yet made most of his fortune running "three-card monte" schemes. Jefferson Randolph Smith (Soapy Smith) got his start running a con game in which he sold bars of soap that were reported to possibly contain five, ten, or fifty dollar bills wrapped inside the soap wrapper. The only winners in these charades were his shills, leaving the suckers with a simple bar of soap for the purchase price of five dollars each. "Canada Bill" Jones, who was a master of disguises, raked in several fortunes during his lifetime running three-card monte schemes on riverboats and trains – only to loose them at the faro tables.

One of the most often sited gambling quotations was attributed to Canada Bill when he was told that the faro game he was playing in a small backwater town was rigged. He is reported to have nodded his head in agreement and then with a heavy sigh said, "I know but it is the only game in town."

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Canada Bill's addiction to faro was not uncommon and throughout the west, farowas by far the most popular card game offered in the gambling halls. Monte (also called Spanish Monte), poker, black jack, were also popular with the players in the Old West. In addition, there were games with the colorful names of red and black, acey-deucey, seven up, red-dog, and brag. For the dice shooters there were high-low, chuck-a-luck, craps, hazard and grand hazard. Roulette and keno were also very popular with the frontiersmen, though these games were easily manipulated to retain a large portion of the money wagered by the players. Other forms of wagering such as lotteries, horseracing, prizefighting, cockfighting, and other non-casino gambling ventures were prevalent during this time period but have been intentionally left out of this work. This keeps the focus of the story on what was most often seen in saloons throughout the inglorious days of our wild frontier.

From the mid-eighteen hundreds to just past the turn of the twentieth century saloons and gambling flourished until the morality pendulum swung from the wide-open days to the establishment of anti-gambling laws. First, it was laws against faro and keno, and then later the other saloon games were deemed illegal until gambling faded from the saloons. Eventually the pendulum swung even more and the saloons themselves were outlawed in most states. Later Prohibition served as the final death knoll for what was left of the wild and wooly days of the western frontier. An article that appeared in the Austin Daily Statesman on July 5, 1909 provides a unique reflection on the passing of the great gambling era when two of the most famous saloons were torn down for the construction of a seven-story commercial building in Austin, Texas:

San Antonio or El Paso were never more famous for their gambling resorts in the early days than was Austin. Most of the gambling houses here were in the rooms over the Iron Front and Crystal saloons and upstairs in that block. Any day in the week scores of horses could be seen hitched out in front and upstairs there was the clank of money, the voice of the keno man, the general babble of gambling house talk, and all that goes to make up the ideal gambling house scene. The ranchmen would come in often and play at chance and the cowboys who worked for three months would come in and blow in their earnings but have the times of their lives while it lasted. Then there were such men as Ben Thompson and his associates who kept the merry side going and a scrap was always on tap. Many a row started in the gambling houses and ended in from one to three deaths on the streets. Thompson used to shoot up the houses just for pastime, to have a little fun… It is safe to estimate that an average of $30,000 per month passed over the tables in the gambling houses over the Crystal and Iron Front saloons in the early days. A well known Austin resident said yesterday that he can remember of seeing more than a hundred gamblers of the "sport" class on the street in front of the two buildings at one time besides the scores of cowmen who came in to pike.

Most of the remains of the old saloons and gambling halls are gone now as well as the men who played a major role in the history of the Trans-Mississippi West. The

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faro tables, keno cages, and roulette wheels have been relegated to museums. Strangely enough, as the morality pendulum swung back in the other direction, gambling is now legal in a number of states and to some extent the saloons have returned. But now the major gambling operations appear as casinos (no longer called gambling halls) and millions of Americans are separated from their cash in more elaborate ways, all warranted as being free of cheating by state regulators. The games of faro and monte are no longer played but updated versions of poker, keno and roulette still offer the possibility of winning large sums of money if lady luck smiles on you.

This work does not analyze the socio-economical implications of gambling nor does it seek to explain the motivations or morals of the American gambler. Without passing judgment on the propriety of the societal issues of gambling, this work aspires to tell the authentic story of gambling in the frontier days of America. It covers the major gambling games with details on how the games were played, the equipment used, and how they could be manipulated in cheating. The work provides character sketches of some of the most famous (or infamous) gamblers as well as the prolific con men (three-card monte artists, hucksters, thimble riggers, and other scammers) of the last decades of the 1880s. It follows the gamblers' gypsy circuit of saloons and gambling halls that spread from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Finally, it concludes with a glossary of gambling terms used throughout the book and may prove useful in reading other accounts on American gambling history.

So pull up a chair, toss in an ante, and let the game begin.

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