The Education of a Poker Player (High Stakes Classic)

Author: Herbert O. Yardley
Publisher: High Stakes
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FIVE-CARD DRAW, JACKS OR BETTER

29

The boy to whom I allude won all the marbles of the school. Of course he had some principle of guessing; and that lay in mere ob servation and admeasurement of the astuteness of his opponents. For example, an arrant simpleton is his opponent, and, holding up his closed hand, asks, "Are they even or odd?" Our schoolboy replies, odd, and loses; but upon the second trial he wins, for he then says to himself, the simpleton had them even upon the first trial, and his amount of cunning is just sufficient to make him have them odd upon the second; I will therefore guess odd;-he guesses odd, and wins. 'Now with a simpleton a degree above the first' (Monty continued reading) 'he would have reasoned thus: This fellow finds that in the first instance I guess odd, and in the second, he will propose to himself upon the first impulse, a simple variation from even to odd, as did the first simpleton; but then a second thought will suggest that this is too simple a variation, and finally he will decide upon putting it even as before. I will therefore guess even;-he guesses even, and wins. Now this mode of reasoning by the schoolboy, whom his fellows termed lucky-what, in its last analysis is it?'

"Poe is asked this question," said Monty looking up from the page. "Poe replies:

'It is merely an identification of the reasoner's intellect with that of his opponent.'

"Do you grasp what I have read in its relation to poker?" Monty asked, sipping his drink.

"I think so," I said. "If you overvalue or undervalue another's in tellect you will guess wrong. If you want to know when to call and when to bluff, identify yourself with your opponent's cunning."

"Exactly," said Monty. "And that's what I failed to do with you." He smiled ruefully. "For practice you should carry a pocketful of pennies around and entice others to play odd or even. Poe calls it even or odd. If you win consistently you have proof you can judge another's acumen. How do you think our town football team won against those bruising Linton Miners last Sunday?"

"By playing odd or even?" I laughed.

"By playing odd or even. As in Poe's The Purloined Letter, Linton's quarterback's intelligence is just once removed from the arrant sim-