Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 206, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 August 1915 — Auto Poker Newest Fad of Minneapolis Sports [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Auto Poker Newest Fad of Minneapolis Sports

■MINNEAPOLIS. —Exit ennui of the sporting gentry. Those who have grown jJI a trifle blase yanking the lever of the slot machine or clixiking the dice on the cigar Btore counter, or shooting the ivory marbles over the green baize

table, are appeasing their gambling impulses by playing “auto poker.” The new game is played on a street corner, and, in addition to the opportunity it gives a participant to garner a “pot,” it enables him to breathe the fresh air and get close to nature. A party of “young bloods” — though there isn’t necessarily any age limit to the pastime—gathers together and, as automobiles heave into the offing, each wooer of chance picks out a machine on which he “lays” his

lucre. A* the machines pass, the license numbers are noted. The results are judged according to the ratings of '‘poker,” a parlor game invented by Mr. Hoyle for tired business men. ~, The player who “draws” license numbers forming two pair, three of a kind, a straight, full house or fours of a kind, can get just the same thrills as if he had them dealt to him from a deck. He is spared the fatigue of haring to riffle the cards and deal. As an automobilist drove his machine past Twelfth street and Nicollet avenue he noted a group of young men on the corner. As he neared them they appeared excited, scanned his license tag closely and then paid sums of money to one in their midst. It wasn’t until he reached his garage that the automobilist caught the significance of the excitement. He surmised they •had been playing "auto poker” and one of them had drawn a prize hand —his number was 77766, a “full house.” "There’ll be a riot if 1111 passes that corner,” he declared.