Made His Last Bet

Lost His Last Dollar at Poker and Then Fell Dead

Article taken from the Delphos Daily Herald, July 8, 1897

William Bierly, aged 51, fell dead recently in a poker room on Chillicothe street, Portsmouth, The stakes had been running high and Bierly had been losing. He was an inveterate player and usually a cool and successful one, but his losses excited him. He finally bet his last dollar on an "ace full" and called his only remaining opponent, George Wilson. The latter laid down a straight flush and reached for the pot. Bierly half arose with smothered exclamation and dropped back dead.

His body was laid out on a billiard table in the room, and only the edict of the proprietor prevented the other men from continuing the game and furnishing an incident that would equal Bret Harte's stories of the Sierra mining camps. Although play was interrupted, the sale of liquor went on briskly in the front room, next the street, a large crowd being drawn by curiosity to see the dead man. The coroner rendered a verdict of death from heart disease. -Cincinnati Enquirer.