[Jewelry making - Article 00391] - [Orchid] [Tidbits] Poker

[Benjamin Mark]

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    August 1876. The Dakota Territory. A saloon in Deadwood. The door
    opens. The gunfighter walks in. His name... Wild Bill Hickok. There's
    a poker game going on at a table over there. Hickok is the last to be
    seated. He has never before sat at a table without having his back
    against a wall. He asks his fellow gamblers if any of them want to
    switch seats. They refuse. It's bad luck. The game begins... and
    shortly thereafter, Wild Bill Hickok is shot in the back and killed.
    He was--at the time--holding two black aces... two black eights ...
    and a queen of hearts. That hand... to this day... because of
    Hickok's death... is called a "Dead Man's Hand". 

    1872. Four men... playing poker on a steamboat on the Mississippi.
    Three sharks... one sucker. It's doesn't take long before Sucker
    loses all he's ever owned. He's distraught. He goes top board and
    prepares to jump. But a samaritan stops him and brings him back to
    his cabin. He tells him to wait... and then the samaritan goes to the
    game. Three sharks now... one samaritan. The play begins. But the
    samaritan ain't no dummy. He catches one of the sharks cheating. They
    wrastle. The samaritan pulls a knife. He demands to see the sharks
    hand. If there are more than five cards there... the shark will die.
    A quick twist of the wrist... and six cards fall to the ground. The
    samaritan takes the whole pot... $70,000. He returns $50,00 to the
    sucker... he keeps $20,000 as his fee. The samaritan's name: James
    Bowie. 

    Poker... as you may all well surmise... had its pitfalls.
    Today--parenthetically speaking--I still make sure I keep my back to
    the wall when playing a friendly game with my buddies. Hey. Let me
    tell you... there ain't no friends in poker. I don't have a Bowie
    knife. Just my cards... and my wits. And like Cyrano... I know a lot
    of poems. And a little Judo. That should suffice. No? They try to
    cheat... I decimate them with Haiku. Aieeee! Chop! 

    But there's a kicker here folks. You're sitting in the den with your
    pals. You're still all friends. A game has not yet begun. The women
    are in the other room... yammering about things that don't interest
    you. Somebody stands... grins... hoists up his pants. There's a
    sudden stillness in the air. Unspoken... someone unfolds a table.
    Someone else gets four chairs. You... you scurry for a seat in front
    of a wall. Someone fans out a deck of cards. He begins to shuffle.
    Chips. Hey. Who's got the chips? Death peeks through the window.
    There are no chips. Lips dry. Eyes narrow. An unlit cigarette dangles
    out of dangerously down turned lips. You grin a lazy grin. You yell
    out... honey. Are you wearing your necklace? 

    They all know. They relax. They smile. Beer is brought to the table.
    Your wife enters. She slips her necklace off. Her look is grim. You
    lose these... you go from basso profundo to mezzo-soprano. I want
    them back when you're finished. She means business. Yes dear. The
    table is silent. It's a charm necklace made of poker chips. 

    Yes indeedy folks. Jewelers are always prepared. The year was circa
    1910-20. Some enterprising jeweler foresaw this event and worked
    feverishly to prevent catastrophe. And so he made a poker-chip charm
    necklace. You wanna see? 

    For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits...may I
    direct you to my home page at www.tyler-adam.com where you will
    scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that says
    Current Tidbits... and then click on it in order to view this poker
    chip beauty with 12 clay poker-chip charms in various motifs set in
    gold bezels. Length... 19 inches. Value... usually around $5500. But
    in the middle of a game... priceless. 

And there ya have it.
That's it for this week folks.
Catch you all next week.
Benjamin Mark
http://www.tyler-adam.com
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