I was playing poker the other night... with Tarot cards. I got a full house and
He did not do the things our schoolmates’ fathers did: he never went hunting, he did not play poker or fish or drink or smoke. He sat in the livingroom and read. With these
Drunks are rarely amusing unless they know some good songs and lose a lot a poker. -- Karyl Roosevelt
If scientific reasoning were limited to the logical processes of arithmetic, we should not get very far in our understanding of the physical world. One might as well attempt to grasp the game of poker entirely by the use of the mathematics of probability. -- Vannevar Bush
If you sit down at a poker game and don't see a sucker, get up. You're the sucker.
I stayed up all night playing poker with tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died. -- Steven Wright
I was playing poker the other night... with Tarot cards. I got a full house and 4 people died. -- Steven Wright
Moe: Wanna play poker tonight? Joe: I can't. It's the kids' night out. Moe: So? Joe: I gotta stay home with the nurse.
"At Epsom races, a matter of over twenty years ago, I got acquainted wi' a man whose skull I'd crack wi' this poker, like the claw of a lobster, if I'd got it on this hob. His right name was Compeyson; and that's the man, dear boy, what you see me a pounding in the ditch, according to what you truly told your comrade arter I was gone last night.
"Well," said Joe, passing the poker into his left hand, that he might feel his whisker; and I had no hope of him whenever he took to that placid occupation; "your sister's a master-mind. A master-mind."
"I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with his huge brown hands.
It was all very well to say 'Drink me,' but the wise little Alice was not going to do THAT in a hurry. 'No, I'll look first,' she said, 'and see whether it's marked "poison" or not'; for she had read several nice little histories about children who had got burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts and other unpleasant things, all because they WOULD not remember the simple rules their friends had taught them: such as, that a red-hot poker will burn you if you hold it too long; and that if you cut your finger VERY deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle marked 'poison,' it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.
Joe's blue eyes turned a little watery; he rubbed first one of them, and then the other, in a most uncongenial and uncomfortable manner, with the round knob on the top of the poker.
Pretending to read a smeary newspaper long out of date, which had nothing half so legible in its local news, as the foreign matter of coffee, pickles, fish sauces, gravy, melted butter, and wine with which it was sprinkled all over, as if it had taken the measles in a highly irregular form, I sat at my table while he stood before the fire. By degrees it became an enormous injury to me that he stood before the fire. And I got up, determined to have my share of it. I had to put my hand behind his legs for the poker when I went up to the fireplace to stir the fire, but still pretended not to know him.
"Oh!" said I, poker in hand; "it's you, is it? How do you do? I was wondering who it was, who kept the fire off."
He had taken up the poker again; without which, I doubt if he could have proceeded in his demonstration.
"See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the room.
"Though mind you, Pip," said Joe, with a judicial touch or two of the poker on the top bar, "rendering unto all their doo, and maintaining equal justice betwixt man and man, my father were that good in his hart, don't you see?"
"Nonsense," cried Nastasia Philipovna, seizing the poker and raking a couple of logs together. No sooner did a tongue of flame burst out than she threw the packet of notes upon it.
Again: as the profound calm which only apparently precedes and prophesies of the storm, is perhaps more awful than the storm itself; for, indeed, the calm is but the wrapper and envelope of the storm; and contains it in itself, as the seemingly harmless rifle holds the fatal powder, and the ball, and the explosion; so the graceful repose of the line, as it silently serpentines about the oarsmen before being brought into actual play--this is a thing which carries more of true terror than any other aspect of this dangerous affair. But why say more? All men live enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their necks; but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life. And if you be a philosopher, though seated in the whale-boat, you would not at heart feel one whit more of terror, than though seated before your evening fire with a poker, and not a harpoon, by your side.
In these discussions, Joe bore no part. But he was often talked at, while they were in progress, by reason of Mrs. Joe's perceiving that he was not favorable to my being taken from the forge. I was fully old enough now to be apprenticed to Joe; and when Joe sat with the poker on his knees thoughtfully raking out the ashes between the lower bars, my sister would so distinctly construe that innocent action into opposition on his part, that she would dive at him, take the poker out of his hands, shake him, and put it away. There was a most irritating end to every one of these debates. All in a moment, with nothing to lead up to it, my sister would stop herself in a yawn, and catching sight of me as it were incidentally, would swoop upon me with, "Come! there's enough of you! You get along to bed; you've given trouble enough for one night, I hope!" As if I had besought them as a favor to bother my life out.
"Whatever family opinions, or whatever the world's opinions, on that subject may be, Pip, your sister is," Joe tapped the top bar with the poker after every word following, "a-fine-figure--of--a--woman!"
I broke out crying and begging pardon, and hugged Joe round the neck: who dropped the poker to hug me, and to say, "Ever the best of friends; an't us, Pip? Don't cry, old chap!"
"Well, Pip," said Joe, taking up the poker, and settling himself to his usual occupation when he was thoughtful, of slowly raking the fire between the lower bars; "I'll tell you. My father, Pip, he were given to drink, and when he were overtook with drink, he hammered away at my mother, most onmerciful. It were a'most the only hammering he did, indeed, 'xcepting at myself. And he hammered at me with a wigor only to be equalled by the wigor with which he didn't hammer at his anwil.--You're a listening and understanding, Pip?"
"She sot down," said Joe, "and she got up, and she made a grab at Tickler, and she Ram-paged out. That's what she did," said Joe, slowly clearing the fire between the lower bars with the poker, and looking at it; "she Ram-paged out, Pip."
Proceeding into the Castle again, we found the Aged heating the poker, with expectant eyes, as a preliminary to the performance of this great nightly ceremony. Wemmick stood with his watch in his hand until the moment was come for him to take the red-hot poker from the Aged, and repair to the battery. He took it, and went out, and presently the Stinger went off with a Bang that shook the crazy little box of a cottage as if it must fall to pieces, and made every glass and teacup in it ring. Upon this, the Aged--who I believe would have been blown out of his arm-chair but for holding on by the elbows--cried out exultingly, "He's fired! I heerd him!" and I nodded at the old gentleman until it is no figure of speech to declare that I absolutely could not see him.
"He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, straightened it out again.
The Siemens Producer in its original shape, of which hundreds have been erected and many may be still at work, is shown in fig. 12. A is the charging-hole; B, the inclined front wall, consisting of a cast iron plate with fire-brick lining; C, the equally inclined "step-grate"; D, a damper by which the producer may be isolated in case of repairs; E, a water-pipe, by which the cinders at the bottom may be quenched before taking away; the steam here formed rises into the producer where it forms some "semi-water gas" (see FUEL: _Gaseous_). Openings like that shown at G serve for introducing a poker in order to clean the brickwork from adhering slags. H is the gas flue; I, the perpendicularly ascending shaft, 10 or 12 ft. high; JJ, the horizontal iron tube; K, the descending branch mentioned above, for producing a certain amount of suction by means of the gas-siphon thus formed. In the horizontal branch JJ much of the tar and flue-dust is also condensed, which is of importance where bituminous coal is employed for firing. Entry: 2
_Auction Bridge._--This variety of the game for four players, which adds an element characteristic of poker, appears to have been suggested about 1904, but was really introduced at the Bath Club, London, in 1907, and then was gradually taken up by a wider circle. The laws were settled in August 1908 by a joint committee of the Bath and Portland clubs. The scoring (except as below), value of suits, and play are as at ordinary bridge, but the variety consists in the method of declaration, the declaration not being confined in auction bridge to the dealer or his partner, and the deal being a disadvantage rather than otherwise. The dealer, having examined his hand, _must_ declare to win at least one "odd" trick, and then each player in turn, beginning with the one on the dealer's left, has the right to pass the previous declaration, or double, or redouble, or overcall by making a declaration of higher value any number of times till all are satisfied, the actual play of the combined hands (or what in ordinary bridge would be dealer and dummy) resting eventually with the partners making the final declaration; the partner who made the first call (however small) in the suit finally constituting the trump (or no-trump) plays the hands, the other being dummy. A declaration of a greater number of tricks in a suit of lower value, which equals a previous call in value of points (_e.g._ two in spades as against one in clubs) is "of higher value"; but doubling and redoubling only affect the score and not the declaration, so that a call of two diamonds overcalls one no-trump even though this has been doubled. The scoring in auction bridge has the additional element that when the eventual player of the two hands wins what was ultimately declared or more, his side score the full value below the line (as tricks), but if he fails the opponents score 50 points above the line (as honours) for each under-trick (_i.e._ trick short of the declaration), or 100 or 200 if doubled or redoubled, nothing being scored by either side below the line; the loss on a declaration of one spade is limited, however, to a maximum of 100 points. A player whose declaration has been doubled and who fulfils his contract, scores a bonus of 50 points above the line and a further 50 points for each additional trick beyond his declaration; if there was a redouble and he wins, he scores double the bonus. The penalty for a revoke (unaffected by a double) is (1) in the case of the declarer, that his adversaries add 150 above the line; (2) in the case of one of his adversaries, that the declarer may either add 150 points above the line or may take three tricks from his opponents and add them to his own; in the latter case such tricks may assist him to fulfil his contract, but shall not entitle him to any bonus for a double or redouble. A revoking side may score nothing either above or below the line except for honours or chicane. As regards the essential feature of auction bridge, the competitive declaration, it is impossible here to discuss the intricacies involved. It entails, clearly, much reliance on a good partner, since the various rounds of bidding enable good players to draw inferences as to where the cards lie. The game opens the door to much larger scores than ordinary bridge, and since the end only comes from scores made below the line, there are obvious ways of prolonging it at the cost of scores above the line which involve much more of the gambling element. It by no means follows that the winner of the rubber is the winner by points, and many players prefer to go for points (_i.e._ above the line) extorted from their opponents rather than for fulfilling a declaration made by themselves. Entry: A
BLUFF (a word of uncertain origin; possibly connected with an obsolete Dutch word, _blaf_, broad), an adjective used of a ship, meaning broad and nearly vertical in the bows; similarly, of a cliff or shore, presenting a bold and nearly perpendicular front; of a person, good-natured and frank, with a rough or abrupt manner. Another word "bluff," perhaps connected with German _verblüffen_, to baffle, meant originally a horse's blinker, the corresponding verb meaning to blindfold: it survives as a term in such games as poker, where "to bluff" means to bet heavily on a hand so as to make an opponent believe it to be stronger than it is; hence such phrases as "the game of bluff," "a policy of bluff." Entry: BLUFF
BRAG, a very old game of cards, probably evolved from the ancient Spanish _primero_, played by five or six, or more players. It is the ancestor of poker. A full pack is used, the cards ranking as at whist, with certain exceptions. There are no trumps. Each player receives three cards and puts up three stakes. The last round is dealt face upwards: the holder of the highest card irrespective of suits wins the first stake from all the players. In the case of equality the elder hand wins, but the ace of diamonds is always a winning card. For the second stake the players _brag_ or bet against each other, if they hold either a pair, or a pair-royal (three cards of the same rank). Pairs and pairs-royal take precedence according to the value of the cards composing them, but any pair-royal beats any pair. The knave of clubs may be counted as any card, e.g. two twos and the knave of clubs rank as a pair-royal in twos; two aces and the knave as a pair-royal in aces. Sometimes the knave of diamonds is allowed the same privilege, but is inferior to the club knave; e.g. two threes and the club would beat the other two threes and the diamond. Players who accept another's brag must cover his. bet and offer another. The third stake is won by the player whose cards make 31 or are nearest to 31 by their pips, aces and court counting ten; but the ace may by arrangement count as 1 or 11. Players may draw from the stock, losing if they over-draw. If one player wins all three stakes, he may receive the value of another stake, or of two or three stakes, all round, as arranged. The deal passes as at whist. Each player should have the same number of deals before the game is abandoned. Entry: BRAG
CALL (from Anglo-Saxon _ceallian_, a common Teutonic word, cf. Dutch _kallen_, to talk or chatter), to speak in a loud voice, and particularly to attract some one's attention by a loud utterance. Hence its use for a visit at a house, where the name of the occupier, to whom the visit was made, was called aloud, in early times, to indicate the presence of the visitor. It is thus transferred to a short stay at a place, but usually with the idea of a specific purpose, as in "port of call," where ships stop in passing. Connected with the idea of summoning by name are such uses as "roll-call" or "call-over," where names are called over and answered by those present; similar uses are the "call to the bar," the summoning at an Inn of Court of those students qualified to practise as barristers, and the "call within the bar" to the appointment of king's counsel. In the first case the "bar" is that which separates the benchers from the rest of the body of members of the Inn, in the other the place in a court of law within which only king's counsel, and formerly serjeants-at-law, are allowed to plead. "Call" is also used with a particular reference to a divine summons, as of the calling of the apostles. It is thus used in nonconformist churches of the invitation to serve as minister a particular congregation or chapel. It is from this sense of a _vocatio_ or summons that the word "calling" is used, not only of the divine vocation, but of a man's ordinary profession, occupation or business. In card games "call" is used, in poker, of the demand that the hand of the highest bettor be exposed or seen, exercised by that player who equals his bet; in whist or bridge, of a certain method of play, the "call" for a suit or for trumps on the part of one partner, to which the other is expected to respond; and in many card games for the naming of a card, irregularly exposed, which is laid face up on the table, and may be thus "called" for, at any point the opponent may choose. Entry: CALL
Bret Harte was an early master of the short story, and his Californian tales were regarded as introducing a new _genre_ into fiction. "The Luck of Roaring Camp" (1868), "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" (1869), the later sketch "How Santa Claus came to Simpson's Bar," and the verses entitled "Plain Language from Truthful James," combined humour, pathos and power of character portrayal in a manner that indicated that the new land of mining-gulches, gamblers, unassimilated Asiatics, and picturesque and varied landscape had found its best delineator; so that Harte became, in his pioneer pictures, a sort of later Fenimore Cooper. Forty-four volumes were published by him between 1867 and 1898. After a year as professor in the university of California, Harte lived in New York, 1871-1878; was United States consul at Crefeld, Germany, 1878-1880; consul at Glasgow, 1880-1885; and after 1885 resided in London, engaged in literary work. He died at Camberley, England, on the 5th of May 1902. Entry: HARTE
BOUILLOTTE, a French game of cards, very popular during the Revolution, and again for some years from 1830. Five, four or three persons may play; a piquet pack is used, from which, in case five play, the sevens, when four the knaves, and when three the queens also, are omitted. Counters or chips, as in poker, are used. Before the deal each player "antes" one counter, after which each, the "age" passing, may "raise" the pot; those not "seeing the raise" being obliged to drop out. Three cards are dealt to each player, and a thirteenth, called the _retourne_, when four play, turned up. Each player must then bet, call, raise or drop out. When a call is made the hands are shown and the best hand wins. The hands rank as follows: _brélan carré_, four of a kind, one being the _retourne_; _simple brélan_, three of a kind, ace being high; _brélan favori_, three of a kind, one being the _retourne_. When no player holds a _brélan_ the hand holding the greatest number of pips wins, ace counting 11, and court cards 10. Entry: BOUILLOTTE
FIRE-IRONS, the implements for tending a fire. Usually they consist of poker, tongs and shovel, and they are most frequently of iron, steel, or brass, or partly of one and partly of another. The more elegant brass examples of the early part of the 19th century are much sought after for use with the brass fenders of that date. They were sometimes hung from an ornamental brass stand. The fire-irons of our own times are smaller in size and lighter in make than those of the best period. Entry: FIRE
_Tritoma._--Splendid stoutish-growing plants of noble aspect, familiarly known as the Poker plant, from their erect, rigid spikes of flame-coloured flowers; sometimes called Kniphofia. _T. Uvaria_, 3 to 4 ft., bright orange-red, passing to yellow in the lower flowers, is a fine autumnal decorative plant. They should be protected from frosts by a covering of ashes over the crown during winter. Entry: HARDY
"I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush are, I think, all that we need."
Head was the author of a considerable number of works, chiefly of travel, written in a clever, amusing and graphic fashion, and displaying both acute observation and genial humour. His principal works, beside those mentioned above, and a narrative of his Canadian administration (1839), were _The Emigrant_ (1846); _Highways and Dryways, the Britannia and Conway Tubular Bridges_ (1849); _Stokers and Pokers_, a sketch of the working of a railway line (1849); _The Defenceless State of Great Britain_ (1850); _A Faggot of French Sticks_ (1852); _A Fortnight in Ireland_ (1852); _Descriptive Essays_ (1856); comments on Kinglake's _Crimean War_ (1853); _The Horse and his Rider_ (1860); _The Royal Engineer_ (1870); and a sketch of the life of Sir John Burgoyne (1872). Entry: HEAD