Upon waking, Oakhurst realizes that Uncle Billy has stolen off with the group's mules. Tom leads the group to an old cabin that he had found, and they spend the night. He is thrilled to see him, and the young couple decides to spend some time with the group, obviously unaware of the fact that they were exiled for being immoral. As a result of this Tom feels positively towards Oakhurst.

Afterwards, he told Tom never to play poker again, and returned him his money. They played Poker together, and Oakhurst won a great deal of money from him. Tom Simons, also called “The Innocent,” has met Oakhurst before. Meanwhile, Oakhurst encounters a young runaway couple, Piney Woods and Tom Simons, heading to Poker Flat to get married and seek their fortune. Despite Oakhurst's warnings that they do not have enough food to survive, the rest of his party decides it can survive on liquor. After hours of traveling, Oakhurst’s companions get tired, and despite his remonstrances they decide to stop and rest. The four characters get together and leave Poker Flat, heading to the nearby town of Sandy Bar, only a day's journey away but accessible only via a treacherous mountain pass in the Sierra Mountains range. They are instructed not to come back, on pain of death. The group consists of Duchess, a saloon girl, Mother Shipton, a madam, Uncle Billy, a local drunk and thief, and John Oakhurst, a poker player, who won a lot of money from the people sitting on the secret committee. One November morning, the stoic John Oakhurst, an avid poker player and the story's protagonist, notices a 'Sabbath lull' in the air on Poker Flat's main street and suspects the town is onto yet another round of exiling. This committee decides who will be killed and who expatriated.

Consequently a secret committee is elected.

They have lost a lot of money, and worry that people's morals are sinking. Certain inhabitants of Poker Flat feel that the community is going downhill. The story takes place in Poker Flat, a small California gold mining community.

The outcasts of poker flat questions