With its name shortened to Faro, it spread to the United States in the 19th century to become the most widespread and popularly favored gambling game. It was played in almost every gambling hall in the Old West from 1825 to 1915. Faro could be played in over 150 places in Washington, D.C. Alone during the Civil War.
Poker is the most famous type of gambling that's depicted in western movies. Who can forget Doc Holliday's opening scene in Tombstone where he stabs Ed Bailey before raking in a fortune of coins and jewellery. It's not just the movies though, Wild Bill Hickock's unfortunate departure from the world while clutching aces and eights only helped to fuel the stereotype of the western gambler, but what was it actually like to be a gambler like Doc Holliday?
What games were there?
Faro Gambling Old West Coast
- The heyday of gambling in the west lasted from 1850-1910. Gambling was the number one form of entertainment in the west and nearly everyone living there engaged in it at one time or another. Cowboys, miners, lumberjacks, businessmen, and lawmen all played games of chance for pleasure and profit.
- However, the most popular gambling game in the West was faro, its name supposedly derived from Egyptian pharaohs depicted on the back of French playing cards. The historic California gold rush of 1849 brought many of the Mississippi gamblers to San Francisco where large gambling houses never closed their doors and enormous sums changed hands.
People think of poker when they think of the Old West but Faro was just as popular. Other games included Spanish monte, twenty-one, roulette and chuck-a-luck. The later was the cheapest game of all and only required a five cent bet to get started. Three dice were placed in a bottle-shaped wire cage. The cage was tossed and if all three dice showed the same number face up, the player won the money. Unfortunately for most players, it was common for the dealer to use loaded dice.
Bets were taken on just about everything and anything. cock-fighting, horse racing, foot races, shooting competitions and boxing were all popular sports in Tombstone and attracted plenty of gambling money. Bets were even placed against competing baseball teams or the changing weather.
The Tombstone Epitaph reported:
The quarter-mile horse race at Solomonville last Monday between Bald Face Calf and Crawford was a genuine race. Crawford won by a foot. Over $3,500 changed hands.
Doc Holliday is remembered as a poker player, but he actually spent most of his professional career working as a faro dealer in saloons such as The Oriental in Tombstone. He probably would have fitted games of poker around any other work he was doing whether that was pulling teeth or dealing Faro. Comedian Eddie Foy described the shooting fray at the Comique Theater in Dodge City, and also mentioned how Doc Holliday and Bat Masterson were playing monte together and flattened like pancakes on the floor when the shooting began.
Where did gambling take place?
In frontier towns gambling happened any place that someone wanted to take a bet. In the early days of Dodge City, the town had gambling tables in every saloon in town. In later years Dodge City began fining gamblers in an effort to keep the gambling in town ‘honorable.' The money raised went to maintain the police department.
Saloons varied greatly from small rooms or tents with a wooden board for a bar, to more luxurious gaming rooms like The Oriental in Tombstone, which bragged of its crystal chandeliers and mahogany bar. The more high-end saloons had a separate poker room in the back of the saloon. The bars were smoky and could be lit with kerosene or gas lighting depending on the town. Around 1882, Denver saloons even had electricity.
What were the working hours for a gambler?
It was normal for saloons to be open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Games could run all day and night too. Famously, it was claimed that a poker game lasted continuously over eight years in the Bird Cage Theater in Tombstone. The waiting list to join the game was three days long.
Food and alcohol were available nearly all the time and it would not have been considered unusual to grab a meal or a sandwich at two o'clock in the morning. Beatty and Kelly's Dodge City restaurant bragged in their adverts that they were the finest in Dodge and offered meals at all hours.
Tools of the trade
It goes without saying that a pack of cards were used. A card cutter was used to cut the frayed edges off cards.
Contrary to Hollywood's depiction of gunfights, there were probably more fights over poker tables than in the streets. Gamblers carried derringers in concealed vest pockets for self-protection. While small, the derringer could do plenty of damage at close range. It was also common for gamblers to carry a knife. Doc Holliday's preference is said to have been a Bowie. Considering the average Bowie was nine inches long and Doc was a skinny individual, I doubt that this is true. He may have carried a dagger for protection, but again there is no proof of this.
High rolling gamblers tended to dress well. Silk vests, cravats and tailored suits were the norm. Doc was described in Colorado newspaper interviews as wearing dark well-fitting suits and the latest round top hat. He's also wore a diamond stick pin with a cravat. After his death in 1887, the stick pin was returned back to the Holliday family without the diamond. Presumably, Holliday must have lost the diamond in an effort to pay off debts when his finances became tight.
Riding the Circuit
Professional gamblers like Doc Holliday were referred to as Rounders. They would make a living gambling, travelling to new towns to find games. Since Dodge City was a cowtown, money was made from the cowboys driving cattle up from Texas during the summer months. In the winter, the cowboys left and the town grew quiet. The police force laid off policemen and the saloons lost business. Gamblers like Doc Holliday would move away to other towns to find games, returning the following summer. When Dodge City became more respectable, many of the professional gamblers including Doc Holliday, Luke Short, Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp headed to New Mexico and then on to Tombstone.
Lady Gamblers
Lady gamblers were rare but not unheard of. Lottie Deno is perhaps one of the most famous examples. Lottie gambled her way around Western Texas, eventually appearing in Fort Griffin, Texas where she played poker in the Bee Hive Saloon with many of the more infamous characters of the West, including Doc Holliday. One of the stories told is that Doc was quite taken by this charming lady gambler, much to Big Nose Kate's disgust. Big Nose Kate was jealous and started an argument with Lottie.
'Why you low down stinkin' slut!' Lottie shouted. 'If I should step in soft cow manure, I would not even clean my boot on that bastard! I'll show you a thing or two.'
She then pulled a gun on Kate and Doc Holliday stepped in between them. Perhaps this is just another story to add to Doc Holliday's mythology.
Lottie Deno gambled all her life before finally putting down her cards for the last time when she died in 1934.
Card Cheats
There were plenty of card cheats in the Old West and there were plenty of ways of cheating. When the gambling establishment was crooked, the dice was sometimes loaded or bystanders were used to relay information about cards to the dealer.
It was common for cheats to mark cards with ink. The marks were small, sometimes just a dot or line near the top corner of the card. The cheat wore tinted spectacles while playing. The sunglasses hid his eyes from other players and also made the marks on the cards pop out.
Bending or scoring the corners and edges was also a popular way of marking cards. A card cutter could also be used for cheating. Some of the cards were cut a bit thinner than the others to give the gambler ‘an edge'.
Using a shiny object could also give the gambler an extra view of their components cards. This could be a ring, a hip-flask or tin cup; anything shiny sitting on the table could help. A mirror in the saloon could also give a gambler an advantage. It would not have been the best plan to cheat with other professional gamblers, as they would be equally aware of the methods of cheating as you would. Although, I'm sure there were plenty of unsuspecting cowboys that got taken for a ride.
Casino holland venlo poker. I hope I've given you a small taste for what it may have been like to be a gambler in the Old West.
OBJECTIVE OF FARO: Place winning bets on cards to receive a payout each turn.
Domina coral bay casino & resort. NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2-10 players
MATERIALS: 52-card deck, betting chips, coppers (pennies), case-keeper, dealer box (optional)
RANK OF CARDS: A,K,Q,J,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2
TYPE OF GAME: Gambling
AUDIENCE: Adult
INTRODUCTION TO FARO
This gambling game was extremely popular in the American Wild West and the gold rush, today Faro is a lesser known and enjoyed game, having gone out of style in the 1950s. It's believed to have originated in France sometime in the late 17th century and was called 'Pharaon.' As it passed through western Europe its name changed to Pharo in England, once it arrived in the United States its name was converted to Faro.
Faro is a derivative of the game Bassetta, which was brought to Paris from Italy in the early 17th century. Its origins can be traced back to as early as the 15th century.
HOW TO PLAY
Setting Up
The dealer also acts as a banker.
Players buy chips from the banker in order to place bets during the game.
The banker uses a table, typically covered in green cloth. It's 3 x 1.5 feet with thirteen cards of one suit (usually spades) printed on it. Below is a photo of the table layout.
In saloons, an employee of the banker or anyone not playing the game would manage the casekeeper. It is an abacus-like board with four beads on a wire opposite of a card. Once a card has been shown, the casekeeper would push a bead over to indicate so. Before a fresh deal, all the beads are pushed over to the other side of the wire to indicate they have not been shown. In the absence of a casekeeper a cue sheet may be used. Simply grab a fresh piece of paper, to the far left, from top to bottom, mark A-K-Q-J-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2. If a card is shown, and it is a winner, indicate so by placing a straight line beside the corresponding rank. If the card is a loser, indicate that with a 0 next to the card show. A soda is marked with a dot. in the event of a split, mark an x. Reminder, there will only be three notations beside the card's rank on the cue card if there is a split.
Betting units should be decided prior to starting the game.
Betting
- Size: There are two limits on size: plain limit or running limit. The plain limit is the highest amount staked on a card for the initial bet. The running limit is 4 x the plain limit. So, if the plain limit is 5 the running limit is 20. For example, a player bets 5 and wins. They may leave their original stake and winnings, which totals 10, in the same spot or move it to another card where they also can win 10. This means the player's total stake is 20, the running limit imposed by the banker. If the player wins that last bet, they may only stake 20 on the next. This is called parleeing a bet. If the player wins, their maximum stake doubles. So, if the first bet is 5 the second is 10, the third is 20, the fourth is 40, and so on. Bankers generally allow parleeing bets because they have the statistical advantage.
- Placing Bets: Players must decide what cards on the Faro board they wish to bet on. Placing a betting chip in the center of a card is placing a bet on that card alone. However, they are several possible ways to bet on cards in Faro. If a player places a betting chip equidistant from four cards in the center of the table, they are placing a bet on all four of those cards. Bets may also be placed in the corner of a card, this places a bet on that card and the card directly diagonal (drawing a line through the chip to the next card) of the card with the chip. Players may also place a betting chip toward the end of the table, equidistant from three cards, one of those being one of the cards farthest out in the layout. This places a bet on all three of those cards. The last simple way to bet is high card. On the Faro table will be a rectangle marked 'high card,' placing a bet here means you think the winning card will be higher than the losing card.
- Coppered Bets: Placing a copper (simply a penny) on top of your bet reverses the bet. You are then betting that a card (or cards) will be a losing card rather than be a winning card.
- Players may avoid risking their stake on a turn by declaring, 'I bar this bet for a turn.'
- Players can reduce their stake by half by declaring, 'one-half of this bet goes.'
Playing Faro
After bets all placed, the dealer shuffles and cuts the deck and places it face-up beside themselves. Ideally, the dealer will use a dealing box. It is a spring loaded box the dealer puts the deck in so that cards come out one at a time and players can't see cards below the one on top. This reduces cheating.
The first card on top is called the soda, it is not used and immediately discarded to the left of the board. Following the soda, the next card is the loser card. It is placed between the soda and the pack, on the left side of the board. The next card face-up on the deck is the winning card for that turn. Each turn has two cards, a winner and a loser. Before the next turn, the winning card is discarded to the same pile as the soda.
The game has 25 turns with betting rounds in between, starting with the soda and ending with the hock (the last card turned). All bets are settled at the end of a turn and new bets are placed.
Faro Gambling Old Western
Loser cards only win for the banker, who collects the chips placed on the losing card on the table, unless the bet was coppered. If the bet was coppered the player wins, their winnings is equal to the amount of the bet placed.
Winning cards win for the player who bet on them. Their winnings is equal to the bet amount placed on the winning card and paid out by the banker.
If the winning and losing card are the same in a turn this is called a split. The dealer collects half the chips placed on that card.
When the deck runs dry, and the hock is disposed of, cards a collected and reshuffled. This is a fresh deal. Playing resumes as normal.
REFERENCES:
http://web.archive.org/web/20160507070137/http://www.thegamesforum.com:80/Faro.htm
The Tombstone Epitaph reported:
The quarter-mile horse race at Solomonville last Monday between Bald Face Calf and Crawford was a genuine race. Crawford won by a foot. Over $3,500 changed hands.
Doc Holliday is remembered as a poker player, but he actually spent most of his professional career working as a faro dealer in saloons such as The Oriental in Tombstone. He probably would have fitted games of poker around any other work he was doing whether that was pulling teeth or dealing Faro. Comedian Eddie Foy described the shooting fray at the Comique Theater in Dodge City, and also mentioned how Doc Holliday and Bat Masterson were playing monte together and flattened like pancakes on the floor when the shooting began.
Where did gambling take place?
In frontier towns gambling happened any place that someone wanted to take a bet. In the early days of Dodge City, the town had gambling tables in every saloon in town. In later years Dodge City began fining gamblers in an effort to keep the gambling in town ‘honorable.' The money raised went to maintain the police department.
Saloons varied greatly from small rooms or tents with a wooden board for a bar, to more luxurious gaming rooms like The Oriental in Tombstone, which bragged of its crystal chandeliers and mahogany bar. The more high-end saloons had a separate poker room in the back of the saloon. The bars were smoky and could be lit with kerosene or gas lighting depending on the town. Around 1882, Denver saloons even had electricity.
What were the working hours for a gambler?
It was normal for saloons to be open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Games could run all day and night too. Famously, it was claimed that a poker game lasted continuously over eight years in the Bird Cage Theater in Tombstone. The waiting list to join the game was three days long.
Food and alcohol were available nearly all the time and it would not have been considered unusual to grab a meal or a sandwich at two o'clock in the morning. Beatty and Kelly's Dodge City restaurant bragged in their adverts that they were the finest in Dodge and offered meals at all hours.
Tools of the trade
It goes without saying that a pack of cards were used. A card cutter was used to cut the frayed edges off cards.
Contrary to Hollywood's depiction of gunfights, there were probably more fights over poker tables than in the streets. Gamblers carried derringers in concealed vest pockets for self-protection. While small, the derringer could do plenty of damage at close range. It was also common for gamblers to carry a knife. Doc Holliday's preference is said to have been a Bowie. Considering the average Bowie was nine inches long and Doc was a skinny individual, I doubt that this is true. He may have carried a dagger for protection, but again there is no proof of this.
High rolling gamblers tended to dress well. Silk vests, cravats and tailored suits were the norm. Doc was described in Colorado newspaper interviews as wearing dark well-fitting suits and the latest round top hat. He's also wore a diamond stick pin with a cravat. After his death in 1887, the stick pin was returned back to the Holliday family without the diamond. Presumably, Holliday must have lost the diamond in an effort to pay off debts when his finances became tight.
Riding the Circuit
Professional gamblers like Doc Holliday were referred to as Rounders. They would make a living gambling, travelling to new towns to find games. Since Dodge City was a cowtown, money was made from the cowboys driving cattle up from Texas during the summer months. In the winter, the cowboys left and the town grew quiet. The police force laid off policemen and the saloons lost business. Gamblers like Doc Holliday would move away to other towns to find games, returning the following summer. When Dodge City became more respectable, many of the professional gamblers including Doc Holliday, Luke Short, Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp headed to New Mexico and then on to Tombstone.
Lady Gamblers
Lady gamblers were rare but not unheard of. Lottie Deno is perhaps one of the most famous examples. Lottie gambled her way around Western Texas, eventually appearing in Fort Griffin, Texas where she played poker in the Bee Hive Saloon with many of the more infamous characters of the West, including Doc Holliday. One of the stories told is that Doc was quite taken by this charming lady gambler, much to Big Nose Kate's disgust. Big Nose Kate was jealous and started an argument with Lottie.
'Why you low down stinkin' slut!' Lottie shouted. 'If I should step in soft cow manure, I would not even clean my boot on that bastard! I'll show you a thing or two.'
She then pulled a gun on Kate and Doc Holliday stepped in between them. Perhaps this is just another story to add to Doc Holliday's mythology.
Lottie Deno gambled all her life before finally putting down her cards for the last time when she died in 1934.
Card Cheats
There were plenty of card cheats in the Old West and there were plenty of ways of cheating. When the gambling establishment was crooked, the dice was sometimes loaded or bystanders were used to relay information about cards to the dealer.
It was common for cheats to mark cards with ink. The marks were small, sometimes just a dot or line near the top corner of the card. The cheat wore tinted spectacles while playing. The sunglasses hid his eyes from other players and also made the marks on the cards pop out.
Bending or scoring the corners and edges was also a popular way of marking cards. A card cutter could also be used for cheating. Some of the cards were cut a bit thinner than the others to give the gambler ‘an edge'.
Using a shiny object could also give the gambler an extra view of their components cards. This could be a ring, a hip-flask or tin cup; anything shiny sitting on the table could help. A mirror in the saloon could also give a gambler an advantage. It would not have been the best plan to cheat with other professional gamblers, as they would be equally aware of the methods of cheating as you would. Although, I'm sure there were plenty of unsuspecting cowboys that got taken for a ride.
Casino holland venlo poker. I hope I've given you a small taste for what it may have been like to be a gambler in the Old West.
OBJECTIVE OF FARO: Place winning bets on cards to receive a payout each turn.
Domina coral bay casino & resort. NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2-10 players
MATERIALS: 52-card deck, betting chips, coppers (pennies), case-keeper, dealer box (optional)
RANK OF CARDS: A,K,Q,J,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2
TYPE OF GAME: Gambling
AUDIENCE: Adult
INTRODUCTION TO FARO
This gambling game was extremely popular in the American Wild West and the gold rush, today Faro is a lesser known and enjoyed game, having gone out of style in the 1950s. It's believed to have originated in France sometime in the late 17th century and was called 'Pharaon.' As it passed through western Europe its name changed to Pharo in England, once it arrived in the United States its name was converted to Faro.
Faro is a derivative of the game Bassetta, which was brought to Paris from Italy in the early 17th century. Its origins can be traced back to as early as the 15th century.
HOW TO PLAY
Setting Up
The dealer also acts as a banker.
Players buy chips from the banker in order to place bets during the game.
The banker uses a table, typically covered in green cloth. It's 3 x 1.5 feet with thirteen cards of one suit (usually spades) printed on it. Below is a photo of the table layout.
In saloons, an employee of the banker or anyone not playing the game would manage the casekeeper. It is an abacus-like board with four beads on a wire opposite of a card. Once a card has been shown, the casekeeper would push a bead over to indicate so. Before a fresh deal, all the beads are pushed over to the other side of the wire to indicate they have not been shown. In the absence of a casekeeper a cue sheet may be used. Simply grab a fresh piece of paper, to the far left, from top to bottom, mark A-K-Q-J-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2. If a card is shown, and it is a winner, indicate so by placing a straight line beside the corresponding rank. If the card is a loser, indicate that with a 0 next to the card show. A soda is marked with a dot. in the event of a split, mark an x. Reminder, there will only be three notations beside the card's rank on the cue card if there is a split.
Betting units should be decided prior to starting the game.
Betting
- Size: There are two limits on size: plain limit or running limit. The plain limit is the highest amount staked on a card for the initial bet. The running limit is 4 x the plain limit. So, if the plain limit is 5 the running limit is 20. For example, a player bets 5 and wins. They may leave their original stake and winnings, which totals 10, in the same spot or move it to another card where they also can win 10. This means the player's total stake is 20, the running limit imposed by the banker. If the player wins that last bet, they may only stake 20 on the next. This is called parleeing a bet. If the player wins, their maximum stake doubles. So, if the first bet is 5 the second is 10, the third is 20, the fourth is 40, and so on. Bankers generally allow parleeing bets because they have the statistical advantage.
- Placing Bets: Players must decide what cards on the Faro board they wish to bet on. Placing a betting chip in the center of a card is placing a bet on that card alone. However, they are several possible ways to bet on cards in Faro. If a player places a betting chip equidistant from four cards in the center of the table, they are placing a bet on all four of those cards. Bets may also be placed in the corner of a card, this places a bet on that card and the card directly diagonal (drawing a line through the chip to the next card) of the card with the chip. Players may also place a betting chip toward the end of the table, equidistant from three cards, one of those being one of the cards farthest out in the layout. This places a bet on all three of those cards. The last simple way to bet is high card. On the Faro table will be a rectangle marked 'high card,' placing a bet here means you think the winning card will be higher than the losing card.
- Coppered Bets: Placing a copper (simply a penny) on top of your bet reverses the bet. You are then betting that a card (or cards) will be a losing card rather than be a winning card.
- Players may avoid risking their stake on a turn by declaring, 'I bar this bet for a turn.'
- Players can reduce their stake by half by declaring, 'one-half of this bet goes.'
Playing Faro
After bets all placed, the dealer shuffles and cuts the deck and places it face-up beside themselves. Ideally, the dealer will use a dealing box. It is a spring loaded box the dealer puts the deck in so that cards come out one at a time and players can't see cards below the one on top. This reduces cheating.
The first card on top is called the soda, it is not used and immediately discarded to the left of the board. Following the soda, the next card is the loser card. It is placed between the soda and the pack, on the left side of the board. The next card face-up on the deck is the winning card for that turn. Each turn has two cards, a winner and a loser. Before the next turn, the winning card is discarded to the same pile as the soda.
The game has 25 turns with betting rounds in between, starting with the soda and ending with the hock (the last card turned). All bets are settled at the end of a turn and new bets are placed.
Faro Gambling Old Western
Loser cards only win for the banker, who collects the chips placed on the losing card on the table, unless the bet was coppered. If the bet was coppered the player wins, their winnings is equal to the amount of the bet placed.
Winning cards win for the player who bet on them. Their winnings is equal to the bet amount placed on the winning card and paid out by the banker.
If the winning and losing card are the same in a turn this is called a split. The dealer collects half the chips placed on that card.
When the deck runs dry, and the hock is disposed of, cards a collected and reshuffled. This is a fresh deal. Playing resumes as normal.
REFERENCES:
http://web.archive.org/web/20160507070137/http://www.thegamesforum.com:80/Faro.htm
http://www.pophaydn.com/uploads/7/7/6/6/7766194/faro_booklet.pdf
https://www.pagat.com/banking/faro.html
