- ACCORDING TO HOYLE
Original Airdate: October 6, 1957
Synopsis. Bret loses more than $17,000 playing poker with Samantha Crawford, a con artist employed by George Cross—who once lost $50,000 to Maverick and is determined to get it back. Samantha claims that Cross is her father and that he needs to recover the money in order to get out of jail. Bret also needs money (two riverboat owners staked him to $5,000, which he promptly lost to Samantha), so he forms a partnership with Samantha. Maverick purchases gambling equipment (with money loaned by Samantha) as part of a scheme to put a crooked game room owner named Joe Riggs out of business. But Samantha and Cross decide to double-cross Maverick by selling the equipment to Riggs.
Besides marking the first appearance of Diana Brewster (Leave It to Beaver, The Fugitive) as con artist Samantha Crawford, “According to Hoyle” features these two famous Pappyisms: “Faint heart never filled a flush” and “Man is the only animal you can skin more than once.”
Synopsis. In the town of Hallelujah, outlaw Cliff Sharp breaks into Bret’s hotel room and plants evidence linking Maverick to a $40,000 robbery-and-murder scheme. After the town convicts him on circumstantial evidence, Bret faces the gallows. When greedy Sheriff Tucker offers to fake the hanging if Bret leads him to the stolen money, Maverick goes along with the ruse but ditches the sheriff at the first opportunity. When Bret discovers that Molly Clifford, Sharp’s wife (played by Whitney Blake) arrives in Hallelujah, he trails her to New Mexico in the hopes of finding the money and clearing his name.
