Embedded Files
In this section stories about the sharps of the Old West will be retold. These stories are about faro players famous, infamous, or noteworthy or a particular event that happened at a faro table.
In this section stories about the sharps of the Old West will be retold. These stories are about faro players famous, infamous, or noteworthy or a particular event that happened at a faro table.
Gambling proprietor Bob Potee, dapper Southern gentleman was accused of cheating at his own faro table one night. Staring down the barrel of a pistol of the enraged sucker, Potee told him "You are mistaken my friend, please sit down" as he sat in the dealer's chair. Potee calmly and carefully spread his hands with the palms down on the table as he said this. "Like H*ll I will!" shot back the sucker as he thumbed back the hammer on his revolver. In the confusion, a number of things happened: everyone got away from the table quick, the lights went out as someone shot out the lamp over the table, and two shots were fired. When light was restored, the gunslinger was sprawled over the table and Potee still sat with his hands on the table as he left them. Just as coolly he told those who were still around, "We will start with a fresh deck when the layout is cleared."
Bones Brannon became a regular feature of Tombstone, Az since he was able to handle cards. He took jobs in saloons and gaming houses just to watch the professionals play and learned their tricks at their elbows. Then he began to deal faro to his age mates from a spring fed cigar box, castoff cards from his jobs, his own handmade case counter, and for whatever was value placed on his faro layout he made out of a discarded cloth. Part of his handmade tools were the dog eared castoffs he learned to read as well. As he grew up and took a job as a faro dealer, his skills and early training paid off as everyone wanted to buck the tiger with a fresh faced kid and paid dearly for it. He was found by Dick Clark and was given a training in the finer points of the sporting world.
Legendary gambler Dick Clark partnered with legendary lawman and gambler Wyatt Earp set out to break Sheriff Behan's faro bank in Tombstone. Earp and Behan were already at odds with each other and Behan was the new leaser for the Oriental saloon's gaming rooms, thus ousting the Earps from their turf. So with the information that Behan only had $5,000 in his bank roll, Earp set out to buck his tiger. Other players cleared out to watch the man, already a legend, play at Behan's table with Behan himself in the lookout position. Earp exchanged $1,000 in chips and played for sometime until he won 10 turns of the cards and chose to cash out. "There's $6,000 here," said Earp, "I put a thousand into your cash drawer and you only had $5,000 to begin." The alarmed Behan tried to use the table's advantage in his favor, hoping Earp would play more and lose. "That's all right, I'm good for anything you win," said Behan. Earp, of course, was not going to play that game and coolly replied, "I'll take mine in cash, your credit with me doesn't cover a white chip." Thus Behan was forced to empty every money drawer and safe to settle with Earp and he split it with Dick Clark, who drove the coffin for the game.Earp (left) was certainly a man to buck the tiger, and had interest in or owned gaming houses wherever he wandered for the rest of his life. In Gunnison, Colorado, where he banked Charlie Bielbel's saloon, Earp had a confrontation with a man named Ike Morris. Morris had a reputation as a short fused gun-toter and one day he played at one of Earp's faro tables and lost big. The dealer at the table raked in the lost checks as Morris suddenly called out that the cards were crooked and demanded his money back. Earp was sent for and conferred with the dealer the honesty of the cards and they were confirmed to be on the square. Earp then talked with Morris as a crowd gathered, hoping for a showdown. Earp told Morris that he was right and the dealer was crooked and felt like returning the money however "you are looked upon in these parts as something of a bad man, and if I give you back your money it will be said you made me do it. Therefore, I am going to keep it." Morris chose not to skin his smoke wagon or whine for his money back and instead offered to buy drinks and left town days later, and disappeared, his reputation destroyed.
In Feb of 1881, an argument erupted over a faro game in Tombstone, Az.
between gunman and gambler Luke Short and Charlie Storms, both friends of Bat Masterson (pictured right) . After intervening for both of them, Bat Masterson personally escorted the drunken Storms home from the Oriental. But as Masterson and Short were leaving for the evening from to the Oriental, Storms had doubled back and arrived to confront Luke Short by jerking Short by the arm into the street. Short was faster, downing Storms with holes in his neck and heart and done in such proximity that Storms shirt caught fire. In a journal left by George Parsons, he wrote that after Storms was carried to his room " the Faro games went right on as though nothing had happened."
Another legendary gambler, Ben Thompson (left) was drunk and wandering through the streets of Austin and ended up in a faro room in a place called the Iron Front. The dealer, by the name Lorraine, had been systematically fleecing his patrons while Thompson looked on. Suddenly he whipped out his pistol and shot a stack of checks off of the layout and then shot the dealer's box. His comment was,"I don't think that set of tools is altogether honest, and I want to help Mr. Lorraine buy another."Dick Clark had an incident at a faro table, as he and his partner were cleaning out the cash box at a faro table at 4 o'clock in the morning, a man named Fred Kolan burst in, gun in hand, and demanded the money. A stack of bills was placed on the table and as Kolan reached for it, Clark's man grabbed his gun arm. Kolan in a fired panic anyway, shooting through the layout near Clark's feet as Clark pulled his piece and knocked him senseless, the only time it he was forced to use his pistol.
Tuscon, AZ. was home of the Legal Tender gaming hall and boss Ezra C. Bartlett. Occasionally, he allowed no limit play at his table when the situation arose. One such time was when three New York sporting men on their way to California stopped in for 3 nights in Tuscon, which they had labeled a "hick" town. Bartlett chose to sit in the dealer's chair when these gentlemen wandered in with a curious crowd in tow. One gentleman threw down $5,000 on the table for checks and Bartlett gave 5 checks right back to him. "Whites are the cheapest I have and a stack will cost you twenty thousand." So either it was play faro at Bartlett's table for $1,000 a check or be humiliated in front of the crowd they had gathered. They chose to play anyway and walked away from the table sans $22,000!
Virginia City was for some time the home of celebrated faro dealer Hamilton Baker who dealt at the Gentry and Crittenden Saloon. It was not uncommon to see a bet of $5,000 at his table; the largest recorded being $30,000 on a single card. After Virginia City, Baker moved to a Saratoga casino for John Morrisey dealing for a wage of $4,500 a month.Virginia City was also home of James "K.B." Brown another faro dealer of note and civic leader who was liked by many. "K.B." stood for "kettle belly" but no one brought it up.
Harry Woolrich, a high stakes gambler, while in Dawson City, Alaska, won $60,000 and swore off his life at the cards, vowing to return to the States and live comfortably for the rest of his days. As he waited for his steamer ship, he decided to go with his well-wishers to buy a drink at a saloon called the Monte Carlo. Glancing over at a faro table, he made his last bet with a 50 cent piece from his vest pocket. "Here's my last bet, boys," he said in a jovial manner. The coin was lost, so he bet another. Then another. Then 24 hours later he was still at the faro table. He had lost his $60,000 and down to his last item, his ticket home, in which he bet and lost.
"Toothpick" Ben Covis was obsessed with Faro, as were many, but to the point that he played or dealt nearly every waking hour of his day. In his leisure hours not playing he was calculating odds and percentages of the game. He did manage to make a lot of money but he never let it show as he did not dress well and never spent more than 15 cents on a meal. Being 6 ft, 7-8 inches in height, the constant playing or calculating, and cheap meals resulted in leaving him thin as a, well, you know. He opened the largest faro game limit in Tapis Franc's (gambling house in NY) history at $5,000.
Another fella called One-Eyed Riley earthquaked Dawson City in faro. He started in Bonnifield's Bank Saloon about midnight and went on a winning streak. His piker bets transformed into high stakes wagers the more he won. Then the news began to spread about the fella winning in Bonnifield's. By daybreak when he stopped for breakfast, a large crowd followed him. After his breakfast he went on to tour Dawson City's Front Street gambling halls. It seemed that breakfast had not changed his luck at all. After he broke that bank at Bill Jenkin's Sour Dough Saloon, he broke the Dominion's faro tables as well. At the Monte Carlo he won against most of the dealers until the Monte Carlo's dealer named Shepherd was roused out of bed to come stop Riley. When One-Eyed Riley's luck finally changed, he counted up $28,000 in winnings. He wisely chose to leave and tried to catch a steamer in Skagway, but lost the fortune to Soapy Smith's dice game.
Lottie Deno (left) was among the rare woman gamblers
of the Old West, and certainly a clever gambler. When the famous Doc Holliday broke Mike Fogerty's bank in Fort Griffin, Tx. at the Bee Hive, Lottie Deno was available to turn things around. Fogerty was out $3,000 and had turned over his dealing box. Deno sat down instead and offered a $50 limit. Holliday placed his bets and played, and when Doc left, he left without the $3,000 and some of his own bankroll. She is buried near her husband Frank several inches from his shoulder "in the lookout's seat". The famous "Poker" Alice Ivers (right) bucked the tiger and broke the
bank at a Silver City, NM, faro table and cleaned up several thousand dollars and left town. She ended up in New York City where she lavishly, until she ran out of money and went back out West to fleece more miners, where she continued to make a name for herself. British born gambler Langford Peel liked to be a catalyst, forging friends and making enemies. One such occasion, while in Helena, Montana, he watched a gaffed dealer box deplete the funds of some six miners sitting at a faro table. In a show of sensitivity he placed a hand on the shoulder of one of the miners and asked him how much he lost and then asked all of them. Peel then turned to the dealer and told him to return all the money to them and when the dealer hesitated, he pulled his coat back to show his pistol. Then the dealer started to count out the money. Peel told the dealers they had they been fleeced as he dramatically flipped over the dealer box. He told the miners "Go across the street. You won't likely win there either, but at least the game is on the square."
Famed American writer Mark Twain (left) wrote, "A dollar picked up in the road is more satisfaction to you than the ninety-and -nine which you had to work for, and money won at faro or in stock snuggles into your heart in the same way." - "The Shrine of St. Wagner" The largest single bet as far as anyone can remember or record was made in San Francisco in the El Dorado gambling hall made by Ed Moses, a wealthy owner of several interests in gambling houses in the area. The bet:$60,000. He lost. Overall, in the 8 hours he played he lost a total of $200,000. That very night at the same place, a 19 year old man won $22,000 on three successive drawings of the ace. He chose to walk away while he was ahead. A miner at the same table backed the same card with a bag of gold dust and won and doubling his bet, won yet again. When he bet a third time on the ace, at least a dozen more rode with him and within a few turns the ace drew in favour of the bank. When faced with a frustrated and angry bunch of men, the dealers calmly drew their revolvers and declared the game fair and the bank the rightful owner of the $95,000 standing on the ace.
Lawman and Gambler Bat Masterson at one time had so captivated a faro dealer with the tales of his life that after the turn had been called that he simply shoved the whole deck back into the dealing box without so much as a shuffle. The quick thinking Bat looked over his tab from the previous game and bet accordingly and won substantial money losing "only for decency's sake." Then as Bat prepared to call the turn, the dealer became suspicious and turned his box over, thus ending the game.
John Jackson Cozad's game was faro and so much so, that he was banned from many an establishment on either coast and had to resort to using an assumed name and disguises to get admittance to the plush clubs he was fond of. Summer 1872 in Omaha, Cozad earthquaked the faro tables and won $50,000, and he bought forty thousand acres of prairie land along the railroad in Nebraska and started a small town named after him.
Another western legend, Bill Hickok (left), was travelling through Cheyenne, Montana, in 1874 can came to Bowlby's faro table. He was in disguise as famous people do to ward off the curious, so he was wearing blue tinted glasses and his long shoulder length hair tucked into his hat. He placed a bet of $50 on a card and lost and Bowlby collected the bet. Bill bet again on the same card with another $50 and won, but the dealer only gave him $25. Bill asked why he was only given half the bet and the dealer told him that there was a $25 limit. Asked why he took the full $50 when he lost, Bowlby responded," Fifty goes when you lose." Enraged Bill took his walking stick and beat the dealer and the lookout and helped himself to the money drawer. He swung around with his pistols in his hands and told the astonished patrons,"Let everybody fill his hand!" while his hat and glasses fell off. Someone recognized him and yelled,"It's Wild Bill" and the room emptied. The next day Hickok was visited by both Bowlby and the city marshal. Bill offered to split the money he had taken from Bowlby and it was agreed and the three went out to seal the deal with a drink.
While Faro was incredibly popular in the western United States,
it was played in Europe as well and was mentioned in several novels. British novelist William Thackeray’s The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq., has his character help his uncle cheat at faro professionally. Casanova, the 18th century adventurer mentions it as it was played in Europe at the time. The tiger was bucked as far away as Russia, for Alexander Pushkin’s short story The Queen of Spades is about playing faro as well as Fyodor Dostoevsky's (pictured left) The Brothers Karamazov. It is of note that Dostoevsky was known to buck the tiger and incur large gambling debts as a result.The Delta saloon was home of the Faro table in which three of the previous owners of the
table committed suicide. The first was a certain Black Jake who played on it during the Civil War and one night lost $70,000 and then shot himself. The second owner only owned it for a day before losing everything and shot himself as well. The table was stored for feared it would cause more deaths. Then it was changed into a 21 table nearly 30 years later and put to use. Then one stormy night, as the story goes, a miner stumbled into the saloon and bet his gold ring. He played all night until he won $86,000, a team of horses, an interest in a gold mine, and everything the owner had in the world, and then the owner committed suicide. It is currently on display at the Delta Saloon in Arizona.
One of the most popular stories of faro involved "Canada Bill" Jones (left). While in Baton Rouge, La,
1853, Canada Bill was bucking the tiger in the back of a barber shop when fellow gambler George Devol (right) found him losing terribly. Devol urged Bill to move on because the game was clearly brace but Bill shrugged and said,"I know, but it's the only game in town." Devol himself said of the game, "If I had never seen a faro table, I'd be a wealthy man today."
DeArment, Robert,"Knights of the Green Cloth -The Saga of the Frontier Gamblers." University of Oklahoma Press:Oklahoma.1982. - - Asbury, Herbert."Sucker's Progress: an informal history of gambling in America" Thunder's Mouth Press:New York. 1938.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse