Jack Pots by Collin MacKenzie

For anybody interested in Erdnase, this poker story compilation should be of interest because many poker stories are from Chicago. It was published in 1887 which means it likely overlaps somewhat with the active time of Erdnase. We are not saying you will find a story featuring Erdnase. But such poker stories, even if they are often exaggerated or purely fictional, do provide one with some sense of the times of Erdnase.

In particular, it is educational to compare the stories with the ones from Eugene Edwards' Jack Pots. There isn't any significant overlap, however one aspect is noticeably different. Eugene Edwards knows a lot more about the world of cheating than Collin MacKenzie, which supports our belief that Eugene Edwards is another pseudonym of Erdnase.

From the Preface:

It is easy to understand how poker has taken the hold it has upon the American mind and how it has even supplanted whist, chess and cribbage with the effete monarchies of Europe. It is a fascinating game because in it one’s judgment, coolness and pluck count for even more than luck. To a veteran poker-player any mistake of eye or action is a clue for him to work on. Around the poker table a man of any acute judgment can gauge his opponents admirably, because more opportunities are offered. The five cards in the player’s hand are as simple and as easily read as a monosyllabic word in the dictionary. Instantly his brain tells him the code value of the five cards. But here his mere learning and memory desert him, and he is thrown upon keener, finer, more subtle resources. He must study his antagonists as a lawyer studies the case of his opponent. He must learn to read the signification of their every gesture, tone, look and action—to know their habits, their prejudices, their mannerisms. The keen student of human nature will here find his subject portrayed in the fiercest light and with the strongest contrasts, but he must look to himself also, or he may betray to his fellow students the very weakness he strives to find in them. As a recent writer remarked: “A game of poker is a reduced photograph of the game of life. It is a struggle wherein the fittest survive, luck being also an element. It is a contest of man against man, cards being the weapons, or the pens, or the professions, or the trades, as you like. In poker human nature and money are trumps. Poker has a soul—it is life. Poker is the one game which has a soul in it. Heartless it may be, like its most favored devotees, but into its pool the contestants throw in turn that well-nigh indescribable essence of themselves—intuition that is above logic, feeling that is not impelled by sight, nor touch, nor sound; judgment that is without reason, confidence that is without knowledge—the very ether of human consciousness and intelligence. What is this but soul?”

Preface
Filling A Flush
Threw Away Four Queens
Raising Pears In The South
Nerve At Poker Play
A Hot Cold Deck
Growing Wise At Poker
Too Rich To Enjoy The Game
A Little Hand
Fo’ Jacks
Sam Small’s (Old Si) Chicago Poker Story
He Did Not Have The “Age”
$6,000 Won On One Hand
“It All Goes”
A Full Hand Against A Flush
Claims To Have Beat Five Kings
Rev. M’whacker Tackles An Editor
John T. Raymond And Herrmann
The Snake Had Taken A Jack-Pot
Caught Senator Bowen On A Bluff
Where Poker Is Played
Poker In The Oil Regions
The Attorney And Montana Bill
His Only Straight Flush
Anecdote Of Henry Clay
The Hand That Never Deceived
“Two Pairs Of Queens”
Where Proctor Was Off
The Umbrella In Poker Playing
She Plays Poker
A Remarkable Draw
Sherman Wasn’t Bluffed
An Editor’s Ante
Bound To Open The Jack-Pot
Henry Watterson’s Favorite Poker Song
The Genesis Of Poker
Mr. Farwell’s Poker
The Devil’s Hand—Jacks And Sevens
From Poker-Player To Evangelist
A Tale Of Poker
Played Poker On Credit
Big Poker In Philadelphia
Poker In The Family
Poker Won At The Polls
Played Poker For The Girl
An Unlucky Poker Player’s Dog
“A Leedle Frently Game”
A Georgia Farmer Boy At Poker
Didn’t Know What To Do With It
Two Boss Hands
Senator Vest’s Game Of Poker
“Lookin’ For Glubs”
The Sweetest Hand
A Button Fatal To Luck
A Novice In Poker Jargon
Two Railroads Won At Poker
Gamblers’ Superstitions
The Rhubarb Poker Club
Sitting Down With A Preacher
Aboriginal Poker
Look Out
Struck A Big Poker Game
Mighty Poor Poker Playing Or Mighty Poor Story Telling
Only A Little Jacker
A Model Wife For A Poker Artist
Garfield At Poker
Poker In New York Society
The Progress Of Poker
Digger Mike’s Big Play
Literary Draw-Poker
A Real Western Game Of Poker
Characteristics Of Poker Players
One From The Realms Of Faro
A Yarn From The Mississippi
The Judge Made His Straight
She Called Him
A North Side Poker Game
Wild Bill’s Ace Full
A “Gentleman’s” Game
Capping A Deck
He Knew A Good Thing
Alex. Sweet’ Poker Sermon
A Poker Seance From “Life”
The Value Of Four Deuces
A Philadelphia Game
Mayor Harrison’s Kentucky Reminiscence
William Burch’s Poker Sonnet
Had Him There
Why One Man Quit Poker
Avec