about three o'clock
`` That is good enough , '' the other said , stolidly . `` Take away the money . '' After this dire combat , the game fell flat a little ; but interest was soon revived by a round of Jack-pots ; and here again Lionel was in good luck . Indeed , when the players rose from the table about three o'clock , he might have come away a winner of close on £ 40 had not some reckless person called out something about whiskey poker . Now whiskey poker is the very stupidest form of gambling that the mind of man has ever conceived , though at the end of the evening some folk hunger after it as a kind of final fillip . Each person puts down a certain sum -- it may be a sovereign , it may be five sovereigns ; poker hands are dealt out , the cards being displayed face upwards on the table ; there is no drawing ; whoever has the best hand simply annexes the pool . It looks like a game , but it is not a game ; it is merely cutting the cards ; but , as the stakes can be doubled or trebled each round , the jaded appetite for gambling finds here a potent and fiery stimulant just as the party breaks up .