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Ferguson

Brace man at the Square Deal Saloon in Silver Springs,[1] New Mexico Territory in 1878. (July 19, 1835 – August 8, 1913)[2]

In July of 1878,[2] Bret Maverick had pegged Ferguson and his partner, Connors, as brace men cheating Square Deal Saloon customers in poker. Bret sat in on a game with them and, without exposing them to the other players, foiled them at such dishonest ploys as the four-card spread. Ferguson was using the single-card holdout when Bret riffled the deck and detected a card missing. He called for a count, and Ferguson slipped the card back into the deck to make it complete. After Bret had won $5,000 of the saloon's money from Connors and Ferguson, saloon owner Carl Jimson replaced them in the poker game to challenge Bret himself. Bret believed Jimson was dealing from a stacked deck and called for a cut. He reached for a match to light his cigar and Jimson used the motion to infer that Bret was reaching for a gun, shot him in the shoulder and had him thrown out of his saloon. Ferguson backed Jimson's claim, saying he had seen Bret going for his gun.[1]

See: Relic of Fort Tejon