Disclaimer: The characters in this story are the property of Disney and are only used for fan related purposes.
High Stakes
An unofficial follow-up to Last Night.
A word or two about poker—
Poker is a newsboy's game and for the obvious reason that a newsboy and his newsboy chums can always find a penny or something even more worthwhile to play for; that, and most newsies have—or know where to get their hands on—an old battered deck of cards at a moment's notice. It is a simple vice, no worse than gambling with dice, cheaper than buying nickel whiskey from a stout bartender, longer-lasting than a cigarette that was more paper than tobacco these days.
The rules are simple, and some were even made up as they went along. But the end was always the same: whoever wins the pot is king for a day, boasting and bragging and shaking his winnings underneath the losers' noses. Even the youngest street rat would play if he could afford the buy-in and it's the dear wish of many to throw down a winning hand if only to thumb up their own noses at the older boys. Poker—it's all about the bragging rights and honor, a way to while away the time, hoping you came out on top.
(In the dark and seedy underbelly of New York, there was only one way to go anyway and that was up. The newsboys of the city, despite their minor success of late and their infamous strike, they couldn't get any lower.)
Most of the newsboys' games take place in the lodging house rooms; back alleys were always an option when the rooms were full or the Children's Aid Society biddies came around for a visit with their prim manners and pursed expressions. Crates for seats, an old, three-legged table, barely enough light to read the cards, that's the newsboy's game all right and it would take place in any of the nooks and crannies the newsies thought they owned. Most of the games, that is, except for the real important ones.
And those… those took place wherever you could find Tooth Donnelly. If you could find Tooth Donnelly.
(Just because poker was a newsboy's game, it didn't mean you had to be a newsboy to play it.)