Title: The Gentlemen's Hand-Book on Poker by "...
Publisher: London. George Routledge & Sons, Limited.
Publication Date: 1892
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Very Good
Edition: 1st Edition
xi, 195 printed pages plus four pages of advertisements (for New York Consolidated Card Co.) at end. Tissue-protected, engraved portrait frontispiece with printed signature and engraved by S. Hollyer (very slightly age-toned at the margins). Title page printed in red and black. Section headings and many of the numerous vignette woodblock illustrations in red. Three neat contemporary pencil notes ("pp 59-139 copied from the Standard Hoyle of 1887", "already published elsewhere!" & "end of extract from Schenck"). All pages very slightly & evenly toned. 13 x 18 cm. Original garnet cloth, spine git lettered (slightly faded & very slightly worn at head and tail). William Jermyn Florence was a US actor, songwriter, and playwright. The first edition was published in the USa in 1891. Sittman and Pitt of Brooklyn, New York developed a gambling machine in 1891 that was a precursor to the modern slot machine. It contained five drums holding a total of 50 card faces and was based on poker. The machine proved extremely popular, and soon many bars in the city had one or more of them. Players would insert a nickel and pull a lever, which would spin the drums and the cards that they held, the player hoping for a good poker hand. There was no direct payout mechanism, so a pair of kings might get the player a free beer, whereas a royal flush could pay out cigars or drinks; the prizes were wholly dependent upon what the establishment would offer. To improve the odds for the house, two cards were typically removed from the deck, the ten of spades and the jack of hearts, doubling the odds against winning a royal flush. The drums could also be rearranged to further reduce a player's chance of winning. WorldCat identifies five UK institutional copies of this title.