Search the Encyclopedia Mavericana:   ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

holdout device

Mechanical apparatus hidden up the sleeve.[1]

In general practice, the holdout device is used to hold a hidden card during a game, known only to the user of the device and to be produced at an advantageous moment of play.[1] However, other items other than cards may be held by such a device, such as money, dice, or small knives or guns, depending on the user's needs.[2]

Stampede: In April of 1877,[2] Dandy Jim Buckley was using a new spring-operated holdout "plant" device, which planted a hidden card in one's hand smoothly and secretly. While using it in a poker game aboard the Far West, the device developed a squeak, and he was caught cheating. The captain confiscated all of Buckley's money and had him put off the boat, stranding him on an island at Winnebago Bend in the middle of the Missouri River.[3]

Relic of Fort Tejon: In July of 1878,[2] Carl Jimson rigged a holdout device to hold a derringer up his sleeve before a poker game with Bret Maverick in the Square Deal Saloon, Silver Springs,[4] New Mexico Territory.[2] During Jimson's deal, Bret called for a cut, believing the deck to be stacked. When Bret reached for a match in his vest pocket to light a cigar, Jimson used the move to claim Bret was going for a gun and released the derringer, shooting Bret in the shoulder.[4]