Poker in a Texas Whore House
by Johnny Hughes

Texas Hold 'em became the major poker game in West Texas sometime in the mid- fifties. It created a lot of action and a good many poker professionals. There were poker games available day and night in Lubbock. Many of the road gamblers in the pictures in Doyle's Super System of the first two World Series of Poker were the gentlemen I started playing against when I was twenty years old. This included Jack "Treetop:" Straus, Amarillo Slim, Johnny Moss, Doyle Brunson,, James " Tennessee Long Goody" Roy, Bill Smith, Pat Renfro, Sailor Roberts, Skeet Childress, Joe Lloyd or Floyd, and Doc Ramsey. Back then, professional gamblers spent a good deal of money on clothes. As a matter of pride, they dressed better than almost any other group whether they had any money or not.

A woman named Dolly ran a game six days a week for many decades, until it was robbed. It was forty dollar buy-in, one and two dollar blinds, no limit Texas Hold 'em. Dolly charged two dollars per hour per chair. Dolly came in on the hour to call out "tea time" and collect from everyone. There was no house dealer. Folks set in for around a hundred dollars which would be a thousand in today's dollars adjusted for inflation. Back then, nearly all poker and dice games used paper money not chips because of the frequent arrests, robberies, and chips that could not be paid. Games ran all night long and you were not allowed to take money off the table. I folded hundreds in half and palmed them off the bottom of my stack in a cool, dangerous, rat-holing move. After a long while, players had large stacks of ones, fives, twenties, hundreds, and in really big games five hundred and thousand dollar bills which were in circulation. There was also a game bigger that had chips with five dollars being the least chip.

On Tuesdays, Dolly closed her game and the game moved over to Morgan's brothel, the best known brothel in all West Texas. When the house man played, you would say, "the tea is live." Morgan was of average height, about fifty, with a thick head of jet black hair. Morgan was a big man, around three hundred pounds. He always wore an expensive Stetson , a nice shirt, and bib overalls with a door nob size diamond stick pin on the front pocket. If you were still out at dawn, as I often was, you might see Morgan with a Cadillac full of "his nieces" returning from the best hotels. On Tuesdays, the trick room was closed and the poker was on. The trick room actually had a little red light lamp on the floor in the corner. Morgan was called a "nookie bookie" or a "knot salesman" and the young ladies were called "working girls". Morgan was always at some poker game. His heart-of-gold wife, Bell, ran the place. She also used a whip cup to dust out many half drunk suckers shooting high dice. Morgan was a slow but steady loser at poker and a real calling station who only raised on two Kings. I have never seen anyone else play that way. Morgan's and Dolly's were open poker games with everyone invited: crossroaders, scufflers, scamps, bookies, loan sharks, dice men, con men. You didn't ask a man his last name or how he made a living or where he was from. Usually, there were several out-of-towners at the table.

My first game at Morgan's, the cards ran over me and I was gigglin' and grinnin' with a large winning, for someone my age. My bankroll got up to what would be $120,000 now that year. Usually I'd run down to Coach Brown's and spend way too much on wool coats and slacks after any nice winning. I'd travel and high roll and usually be broke by the middle of the summer. Fall in Lubbock means lots of money: the cotton harvest, the college students are back, and everyone is betting on football.

Right after I discovered Morgan's game, there was a fight on a non poker night and Bell shot a fellow on purpose and Morgan twice in error. The game was only closed about three weeks for Morgan's recovery. We were all really pulling for him.

Bill Smith, the world champ of 1985, was one of the top poker players in his early twenties.He was one of my early mentors. Bill warned me to stay away from Morgan's if there were any drunk folks. Unlike Dolly, Morgan sold beer. The place was well known to laws and outlaws. Morgan was friends with the Detectives who parked at his place for long periods of time. Rumor had it he let them know which characters were passing through town. Morgan carried five thousand or more in the top pocket of the bib overalls which made him a juicy target for robbers, cheats, and better poker players. That was fifty thousand in today's money.

Morgan's friendship and discussions with the police was incredibly suspect and unpopular with almost everyone. Poker players are different from other outlaws but they are forced by the laws to be outlaws in Texas.

One night I did stay too late and was drinking and gambling and the cards were striking me. I had failed to notice that Morgan was getting drunk. Sometimes it was hard to tell about several of the players. E.W. AKA Ole 186 would slip pills into his coffee and just get weirder and weirder and bet more aggressively than anyone. Calvert would stash five or so olive jar bottles full of Vodka somewhere on his person. He was a skinny fellow in an oversized baggy suit who got a little drunker as the night wore on. Gene Bass had a flask and slipped whiskey into his coffee. He got so mad one night that he took the card that busted him and put it into a sandwich and ate it.

I slow played two Kings against Morgan's King Three and the flop came K,3,3 giving up both full houses. It was around two in the morning and we got all in for a thousand dollar pot. At show down, Morgan stood up and yelled, "You cold-decked me, you son of a bitch. Bell, get my lead pipe." She was standing behind me and the big pot was just sitting there in the center of the table. I knew not to say anything, move, or make eye contact. I'm guessing Bell will ignore him. There was a little pawn shop pistol in my car but there is no way my partner, Jerry, is going to be making any John Wayne movements.

Neal the Carney and Sharptop, Homer D., Friend of the Working Girl had only recently busted out. They were still sitting at the table. Neal said, "Kid, will you loan me forty dollars." I nodded Yes and he got two twenties out of the pot.

Neal said, "Sit down, Slim Jim. And shut up." Morgan sat back down. I finally raked in the pot. I loaned Sharptop forty and Neal dealt a hand. Sharptop was a real ballyhoo man, everyone's favorite grifter. As usually happens, no matter what, the poker game goes on.

After I folded a few hands, Morgan appeared to cool down. I said I was leaving. Morgan apologized and said, "I wasn't mad at you. I was mad at myself."

Morgan and I got to be somewhat good friends after that. One night Morgan and E.W. were squabbling. I'd learned to watch a hot score building just like you watch the thunder clouds on the ever flat horizon of West Texas. They may be fifty miles away and fifty thousand feet up, like E.W. I tipped over a little score and did the old heel and toe out of there. Smell trouble, catch the breeze. Later that night, E.W. shot three times at Morgan across the poker table. The first shot hit the window air conditioner and sent it into the yard. The second shot missed and the third shot hit Morgan in the foot. This terrorized E.W. He ran out the door and down the street leaving his beloved 1952 Chevy AKA Ole Smokey behind. Morgan limped after him and fired a few shots his way. Bell patched things up and E.W. was back at the game the next week. When Johnny Chan first hit Vegas, he jumped off big winner but E.W. busted him.

My parents had moved off. On Thanksgiving, Morgan and Bell invited me to a wonderful feast of all the things you associate with the family holiday. There was fantastic food, wine, lively and humorous conversation, and five working girls. Back then there was some kind of circuit where the "talent" traveled "the wheel" which included Ft. Worth, Dallas, Midland, Ruidoso, and Lubbock. They said they were from Ft. Worth or, at least, considered it a second home. One young woman spoke of how lonely she was without her children who lived with her Mother. She said, "I'm gonna buy them a big ole color T.V. for Christmas, if I don't get arrested before then."

Another lady said that her fantasy was to rent a bus and "fill it with beer and whiskey and wash tub full of pills. We'd get all the characters and just ride around Texas." They paid tribute to Morgan, because he only took forty per cent when his competitors routinely took fifty per cent.

One week, we were raided by the Lubbock Police and arrested at three different poker spots. At Morgan's, they raided these bootleggers next door first and gave us plenty of time to put up the cards and cash. They asked if anyone had a job and no one did, so the charge was Vagrancy by Association. The fine was $15 for playing poker and $20 for sweating a game to trap the liars who said they were not playing. Morgan's was very well known. Cab drivers had a rate card for the hotels, the airport, "the Flats", and Morgan's. The police were very nice and friendly. They never drew guns or used handcuffs or any of that. They would make us empty our pockets into a property envelope, take our belts, finger print us, and photo us and either put us in a cell for less than a minute or just collect the fines. Usually a bail bondsmen miraculously appeared. Odessa Red had $44,000 in his bankroll and the police had trouble counting it. They let him run rapidly through his boodle. Some court case back then had ruled that cash or currency is not evidence and the police could not confiscate it.

The next night they arrested us again at a bigger game. They would ask each of us if we had ever been arrested before. I would follow the older guys lead and say no even though the police found it hilarious. The police had all these old photos of everyone they had arrested before. There were thirteen of us. Three of the guys had been arrested together way back in the twenties. The photos showed these roaring twenty era gangster suits. Back then the players at the large game came from all over. They also dressed up with sports coats, slacks, and hats with no ties. A policeman asked Oklahoma Joe if he was the same Joe Barnes arrested in Tahlequah, Oklahoma on bunco charges. Joe said indignantly, "I have never been anywhere near Muskogee County in my life.

When you get arrested with fellow gamblers, you learn their real names. I had never known Tennessee Long Goody's real name was James Roy. We laughed because they had Sherman down with an AKA as Stinky. They had me down as John Hughes AKA Johnny. The police would put KG for known gambler by your name.

Dice games also used paper money and used playing cards 4,5,6,8,9,10 to mark the numbers. You would have trouble with the police if you had a craps spread. At dice games, the house paid fines. At poker games, each player paid his own fine. I was working a dice game once when the Texas Rangers came. You had to have a lookout at all gambling joints because the Rangers expect you to open the door. If you didn't, they kicked it in. We called the Rangers "the Big Hats". It was all very friendly. One of the Rangers had gone to high school with Sherman. The Reverend offered them a beer and they declined because they were on duty. The Ranger then said, "If yall are all gonna plead guilty and bring the fines down tomorrow, we'll be off duty and have a beer." It was agreed. The Rangers told the Reverend he would have to move the game because of complaints from the neighbors.

Later, the Supreme Court threw out the Vagrancy laws and a goodly portion of gambler's records. When I entered the Army, I told them of my arrests while seeking a Top Secret Clearance. They just laughed them off and I got the clearance.

We were robbed one night at a different spot and Morgan lost the most money, maybe $5000. It was rumored he was the target. A shot gun was jammed through the wire window screen. It was summer and the window was up. The robber ordered Joe Lloyd or Floyd to open the door and he did so very slowly. Ed threw his bankroll behind the ice box and saved it. That's one reason gamblers keep their bankroll wrapped tightly in rubber bands is so they can throw it on the roof or in the garbage when the robbers come. There were three masked robbers. They kept asking who was the house man and poking people with the shot gun but no one answered. They were out of there in no time. They knew about Morgan's bib overalls pocket where he kept the money. They didn't take his prized diamond stick pin. Folks who robbed poker games back then were a lot higher class of people than the folks you might run into these days.

A few years later they built Ruel C. Martin Elementary, a grade school, right across the street from Morgan's. He kept on operating the best known whore house in these parts but closed the poker. Morgan's was located in the 3300 block of East Broadway on Lubbock's eastern edge. It was the edge of town then and it still is.

This originally appeared on PokerPages.com