When Roy Huggins believed he had found an obscure point in the 1876 edition of "Hoyle's Games," around which to build a memorable scene in Maverick. Indeed, the scene has become classic, whether the Rule of Hoyle is authentic or not. But to Huggins' chagrin, it was not written realistically:

After the episode aired, he received several letters from poker-playing viewers pointing out that, unless Bret Maverick had an ace on the hole, he would have thrown his cards away when faced early on with Samantha Crawford's pair of nines. Huggins admitted they were right. He had been careless, and had violated his own rule in television: to always cater to the intelligence of the upper 20% of his audience.[2]

"According to Hoyle" holds another memorable feature, that of being the first story to quote Maverick's old Pappy. The idea came about once day when Marion Hargrove was dictating to his secretary, Iris Chekenian. As he spoke, he came up with a very clever line for Maverick to speak and noticed Iris paused in her note-taking. It had struck her as "too good a line for a dumb cowboy." Hargrove agreed, and said, "Let's start off with something like, 'As my old Pappy used to say…'" Afterwards, Hargrove told Roy Huggins about Pappy. Huggins immediately recognized the potential for the character, and it became one of the hallmarks of not only Maverick, but all three Maverick television revivals and the 1994 motion picture.[2]

Samantha's ruse of targeting Bret to pay off her father's debt was borrowed from RKO Radio Pictures' "Texas Lady" (1955), starring Claudette Colbert. The opening scenes, set in 1885 New Orleans, are very similar to those of "According to Hoyle," but there is no subterfuge or obscure Rule of Hoyle, and the heroine's motivation was truly to pay off her father's embezzlement debts. From there she moves on to take over her legacy as publisher of a Texas newspaper.[3]

MAVERICK

Season 1, Episode 3

ALTERNATE TITLES
“The Gambler and the Lady”[2]

ORIGINAL AIRDATE
October 6, 1957[2]

TELEPLAY
Russell B. Hughes

Based on the story “A Lady Comes to Texas,”
by Horace McCoy

DIRECTOR

Budd Boetticher

PRODUCER

Roy Huggins

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

William T. Orr

CAST

James Garner

Diane Brewster

Leo Gordon

Jay Novello

Ted de Corsia

Esther Dale

Tol Avery

Walter Reed

Tyler McVey

Robert Carson

Clem Fuller (uncredited)[3]

Sol Gross (uncredited)[3]

Fred Kelsey (uncredited)[3]

William H. O'Brien (uncredited)[3]

Don Turner (uncredited)[3]

Sailor Vincent (uncredited)[3]

Uncredited

Ellis W. Carter

Art Loel

James Moore

Harold Minter

Oren W. Haglund

Samuel F. Goode

Frank M. Miller

Jack N. Young

Gordon Bau, S.M.A

Lee White

William T. Orr

Bret Maverick

Samantha Crawford

Big Mike McComb

Henry Tree

Joe Riggs

Ma Braus

George Cross

Bledsoe

Hayes

Kittredge

Stage Driver

Henchman

Poker Game Spectator

Poker Player

Hamhead

Townsman

Stonewall Jackson Stewart

Director of Photography

Art Director

Supervising Film Editor

Film Editor

Production Manager

Sound

Set Decorator

Stunts

Makeup Supervisor

Assistant Director

Executive Producer

CREW