“Now, this advantage will invariably beat you; for your friend, as you call him, telegraphs you as to _one_, or _two pair_, _triplets_, etc., held by your adversary; while his confederate in the adjoining room telegraphs him the exact _size_ of your hand; even, as I have said, to the highest card, when you held no pair. This robbery is carried on quite largely in this and other cities; and large amounts lost, without the fact ever being told of; for the reason that the one who has been taken in, and lost, must, if he attempts to expose, acknowledge that he himself yielded to the temptation to do wrong. Your friend’s friendship is like that of the spider to the fly. The Pine Street office is the parlor, and your money is the fly, which walks in, but goes out as yours, no more. I am very glad you have mentioned this incident, and I know you will not forget my explanation of it.
“_Twelfth._--I will now speak of the ‘Jack Pot.’ This is an innovation of a late date, and is very much against the interests of a poor player, or one who, for the time being, is in bad luck; for it compels all alike to put into the pot the amount of the ‘_ante_.’ Yet in a square game it has its advantages; for if your bad luck should turn to good, two or three hands would bring back all of your losing, and make you ‘hunk.’ While playing ‘Jack Pots,’ you must watch: _First_, those who are behind-time, and have to be reminded that they have not ‘_put up_’; and, _Second_, those who throw their chips into the pot _indiscriminately_, or who occasionally make the wrong change, or who are habitually changing the chips in the pot with their own--large ones for smaller, or _vice versa_--or who are accustomed to say: ‘Well, I am in. I owe so much to the pot.’ These are all wrong, and done in many cases,--not in all, I am glad to say,--for the purpose of _saving or making wrongfully_, and deserve to be called ‘petty thefts.’ The only right way, my boy, is for all who have an interest in the pot, to promptly ‘put up’ the full amount required in the centre of the table, in front of themselves, and separate from the pot; and under no circumstances allow the chips in the pot to be handled. The dealer should never commence to deal the cards until the bets made are all in for the _full amount_ and _no more_,--having nothing due _from_, or _to_, the pot. This regularity will save misunderstandings, disputes, and oftentimes animosities between the players.