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Herbert O. Yardley

In a nation at war with terrorism, intelligence is vital and valued. Today, the U.S. devotes enormous resources of personnel, technology and billions of dollars to collecting information about governments and activities everywhere in the world.

An early pioneer of American intelligence, Herbert O. Yardley was the man who organized the countrys first government agency to break foreign codes and diplomatic messages.

Long after his career in espionage, Yardley, a lifelong devotee of the game, wrote a classic, The Education of a Poker Player. The book is comprised of his experiences, wisdom and practical advice gained from a lifelong passion for poker. One of the great works of the game, it became a national best seller in 1957.

Born in 1889, Herbert grew-up in Worthington, Indiana, about 65 miles south of Indianapolis. A grain terminal, it had a population of 1,500. The town had seven saloons and they all had poker.

Fascinated with the game, young Herbert convinced one of the owners to teach him to play poker. He studied the game, dealt himself hands and would “figure the odds for every card….”

His mother died when he was 16 and left him $200. With it he started playing poker in the backrooms of the saloons. Here he learned that poker, like life, can be treacherous. Still in high school, Herbert Yardley was a brilliant math student and an all-star athlete. Summers he worked at the rail depot where he learned telegraphy and became fluent in Morse code. In 1912, he scored highest on an exam to become a telegrapher for the State Department in Washington D.C.

Yardley was assigned to the Code Room where messages to and from American officers, agents and diplomats overseas were sent and received in code. The young man was enthralled, “Daily history passed through their hands in one long stream,” he wrote, concluding, “I will devote my life to cryptography.”

Within a few days of America’s declaration of war on Germany and the start of World War I in 1917, Yardley, 28, was put in charge of setting up Military Intelligence, Section 8 (MI-8), to collect and decipher foreign communications. The nation’s first official code breaking agency, it marked a significant step in the history of American intelligence. In Washington D.C., he often played at the National Press Club where the games were Stud or Draw and the stakes were $2 maximum bet, $1 to open. Yardley played so tight he was called “Old Adhesive”. Here he learned that the talent to read opponents was as critical as the odds. “If you want to know when to call and when to bluff, identify yourself with your opponent’s cunning”, he writes.

MI-8 proved its value and was continued after the War. DirectorYardley was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for creating “out of a practically unknown field… a science by which he was able to translate the most secret messages and obtain information of vital importance to the War Department.”

In 1929, President Hoover’s new Secretary of State, Henry L. Stimson, with a naive 19th Century sense of honor, was outraged when he learned of MI-8. Stimson killed the agency, declaring, “Gentlemen do not read each other’s mail”. Now, the U.S. was the only major nation not doing so. Yardley was out of a job; two days later the Stock Market crashed, taking the country into the Great Depression. Desperate to take care of his family, resentful that he and his vital work were stupidly dismissed, Yardley decided to write a book telling the story and secrets of MI-8.

The American Black Chamber was a best seller and became a national sensation. Many people, especially military and intelligence personnel, considered Yardley a traitor for revealing national secrets.

He argued that since the agency had been shut down there were no secrets to protect. He believed it was important for Americans to understand the terrible error made by Secretary Stimson.

Blacklisted from government work, in 1937 Yardley went to work for Chiang Kai-shek monitoring coded messages of the Japanese invading China. His years in China were largely financed with poker winnings in games at the Chunking Hostel where foreigners gathered.

With the approach of World War II, it was realized Yardley had been right, the U.S. must have code breaking and message deciphering capability. Although the practice was permanently reinstated, Yardley was not invited to participate.

In 1957, Yardley published The Education of a Poker Player describing games he had played, skills he’d developed and lessons he’d learned. He begins, “I have consistently won at poker all my life…. I do not believe in luck - only in the immutable law of averages.” The book soon became the #1 Best Seller, eventually going through several printings. It describes and discusses a wide variety of poker games, including every kind of Stud and Draw — high, low, split, with and without wild cards. But the real value and focus of the book aren’t the games, but the abilities, attitude and skills necessary to be a winning player.

Yardley’s poker book made him a national celebrity and redeemed his image in the hearts and minds of a new generation. A year later,he suffered a major stroke and died. In 1998, 40 years after his death, Herbert O.

Yardley was among the first names to be inscribed in the Hall of Honor of the National Security Agency.

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