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05/11/2007 No. 49
he Guardian G2 Poker Column
 
   
 
 
Victoria Coren
Monday Nov 05, 2007
 
 
 
Poker

In his book Ghosts at the Table, Des Wilson tells a famous poker story which has always troubled me. It's one of the legendary tales of the Wild West, but nobody who ever wrote it up (including Wilson) has pointed out the problem. So I'm going to run the story by you as a little poker quiz; see if you can spot the flaw.

Wild Bill Hickok, the notorious gunman and gambler, was playing five card draw with a man named McDonald. Needless to say, this was taking place in a Dakota saloon; no doubt there were swinging wooden doors and a brothel upstairs.

The game had been raging for hours, and our hero couldn't win a pot. Wild Bill Hickok started to suspect that his opponent must be cheating. Eventually, Hickok moved his last dollars into the pot. McDonald called immediately, saying, "I've got three jacks."
 

Hickok replied, "I have a full house. Aces full of sixes."

He turned over his cards, and McDonald said, "But there's only one six."

Narrowing his eyes, Hickok whipped out a pistol.

"Here's the other six," he said.

McDonald went white and muttered, "Take the pot. The hand is good."

Great story, huh? A famous gunslinger, a surprise pistol, a dodgy poker game, a saloon, a fiendish revenge; it's got everything. So what's the problem?

The problem is, of course, that there's no need for the gun. And there's no need for a "second six". Because surely, even in 1869, three aces beat three jacks?

Your can read more on poker by Anthony Holden at his website www.biggerdeal.com
 
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