The Outcasts of Poker Flat
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40 free The Outcasts of Poker Flat trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Bret Harte's 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat' packs a whole moral drama into a few pages. A mining town in a fit of virtue throws out a gambler, two women of doubtful reputation and a thief, and a mountain storm does the rest. First published in 1869, it is still read in American literature classes. This quiz follows the story from the morning of the exile to the note left at the head of the gulch. Expect questions on John Oakhurst, the Duchess, Tom Simson and Piney Woods, on who behaves well and who does not, and on the small details Harte uses to turn outcasts into heroes. A final stretch covers Harte himself and the films and stage works the story inspired. It is pitched for students revising the story for class, for teachers who want a ready-made check on the reading, and for anyone who enjoys Western fiction. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so a wrong guess still teaches something.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which fellow writer, once Bret Harte's friend, later branded him a liar, a thief and a swindler?
Mark Twain
Mark Twain wrote the insults in a letter to William Dean Howells, trying to block his old friend's appointment as a US consul. He later nicknamed Harte 'The Immortal Bilk'.
Q 02On which playing card does John Oakhurst write his own epitaph in 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'?
Two of clubs
The two of clubs, which the story calls the deuce, carries his farewell note. It says he struck a streak of bad luck and handed in his checks two weeks later.
Q 03What does Poker Flat exile John Oakhurst do after winning Tom Simson's entire fortune at cards?
Hands it back
Oakhurst hands it back, all forty dollars or so, and tells the youth never to gamble again. The kindness turns Tom into his devoted admirer.
Q 04Which Poker Flat outcast, named for an English prophetess, starves herself so Piney can eat?
Mother Shipton
Mother Shipton hides a week of untouched rations under her head and asks Oakhurst to give them to the girl. Her namesake was a soothsayer of English folklore.
Q 05Which Greek epic does Tom Simson retell in mining-camp slang in 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'?
The Iliad
The Iliad comes out in the talk of the diggings, with swift-footed Achilles renamed 'Ash-heels'. Oakhurst follows that hero's fate with special interest.
Q 06Which director, later a four-time Best Director Oscar winner, made a 1919 silent film of 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'?
John Ford
John Ford shot the silent version with cowboy star Harry Carey as the gambler. The film is now considered lost.
Q 07In which US state's gold-mining country is Bret Harte's 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat' set?
California
California is the setting: the exiles climb from the foothills into the cold air of the Sierras, making for another mining camp a hard day's ride away.
Q 08What does John Oakhurst fashion from an old pack-saddle so Tom Simson can reach Poker Flat?
Snowshoes
Snowshoes cut from the saddle give Tom what Oakhurst calls one chance in a hundred of saving Piney. Oakhurst himself chooses to stay behind.
Q 09Which Poker Flat exile, a suspected sluice-robber and confirmed drunkard, steals the party's mules?
Uncle Billy
Uncle Billy slips away with the animals just as the first flakes fall, leaving the party stranded. Oakhurst hides the theft from the young couple.
Q 10Why are Tom Simson and Piney Woods riding toward Poker Flat when they meet exile John Oakhurst?
To get married
To get married, after a long engagement and a secret flight from home. Tom thinks it lucky to have found company and a place to camp.
Q 11What nickname does Tom Simson, the youth who idolizes Poker Flat exile John Oakhurst, go by?
The Innocent
The Innocent is so trusting that he takes the Duchess for Oakhurst's wife. He never suspects that his new companions have just been run out of town.
Q 12What weapon lies beside John Oakhurst's body at the end of 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'?
A derringer
A derringer lies by his side, with a single bullet in his heart. The narrator calls him at once the strongest and yet the weakest of the exiles.
Q 13What fastens John Oakhurst's farewell note to a pine tree in 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'?
A bowie knife
A bowie knife pins the note to the bark of one of the largest pines at the head of the gulch. The message on it is written in a firm hand.
Q 21What does John Oakhurst suddenly do to the Duchess before leaving the Poker Flat exiles' camp?
Kisses her
He kisses her, leaving her pale face aflame and her limbs rigid with amazement. He says he is only walking Tom as far as the canyon, yet he never comes back.
Q 22What does the Duchess ask Piney as their fire dies near the end of 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'?
Whether she can pray
Whether she can pray, and when Piney simply answers no, the Duchess feels oddly relieved. She rests her head on the girl's shoulder and speaks no more.
Q 23After John Oakhurst leaves, what does the Duchess find piled beside the Poker Flat exiles' shelter?
Fuel for the fire
Q 14Which mining camp, a hard day's ride away, are the exiles from Poker Flat trying to reach?
Sandy Bar
Sandy Bar had not yet had a moral clean-up of its own, so it seemed likely to take them in. The party halts with scarcely half the journey done.
Q 15Before exiling John Oakhurst, what do Poker Flat's self-appointed judges do to two other men?
Hang them
They hang them from a sycamore in the gulch, a permanent way of ridding the town of improper persons. The exiles are told to stay away at the peril of their lives.
Q 16What instrument does Tom Simson pull from his pack in 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'?
An accordion
An accordion, from which Piney coaxes a few reluctant tunes while Tom keeps time on bone castanets. The music helps the party forget how little food is left.
Q 17Which habit does Poker Flat gambler John Oakhurst shun because it would dull his coolness at cards?
Drinking
Drinking interfered with a trade that needed presence of mind, and by his own account he could not afford it. He stays upright while his three companions sink into a stupor.
Q 18What does John Oakhurst tell Tom Simson he has often gone a week without while playing poker?
Sleep
Sleep, he says: a man on a lucky streak does not get tired, and the luck gives in first. The boast lets him take most of the night watch himself.
Q 19In 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat', what does John Oakhurst call the only certain thing about luck?
It is bound to change
It is bound to change, he tells Tom on night watch, and knowing when is what makes a gambler. He adds that the party has had bad luck ever since leaving town.
Q 20What shelter does Tom Simson find near the trail in 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'?
A roofless log cabin
A roofless log cabin, which Tom thatches with pine boughs once the storm sets in. The women take the inside while the men lie down before the door.
Fuel for the fire, enough to last a few days longer, is his last unspoken gift. The Duchess hides her tears from Piney.
Q 24In which other Bret Harte tale does a gambler called Oakhurst help christen a miners' orphan baby?
The Luck of Roaring Camp
The Luck of Roaring Camp has Oakhurst suggest the name for baby Thomas Luck. In the Poker Flat story a townsman calls him a stranger from that very camp.
Q 25Which magazine, edited by Bret Harte himself, first printed 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'?
Overland Monthly
Overland Monthly was only six months old when the tale ran in its January 1869 issue. Harte had edited the magazine since its first number.
Q 26What kind of body decides to rid Poker Flat of John Oakhurst and other 'improper persons'?
A secret committee
A secret committee does the judging after the town loses several thousand dollars, two valuable horses and a prominent citizen. Harte calls its burst of virtue as lawless as the acts that provoked it.
Q 27Why do some Poker Flat citizens argue for a harsher sentence on John Oakhurst than mere exile?
To win back their money
To win back their money: he had beaten them at cards, and they hoped to reimburse themselves from his pockets. Townsmen who had won from him overruled them.
Q 28What kind of song do Tom Simson and Piney lead, hands joined, in 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'?
A camp-meeting hymn
A camp-meeting hymn, sung with such a defiant swing that the hardened exiles end up joining the chorus. Oakhurst even quotes it later while on watch.
Q 29Bret Harte's Gold Rush mining-camp stories made him a leading figure in which American literary movement?
Local color
Local color writing leans on the dialect, customs and landscape of one region, here the mining camps of the Sierra foothills. The style is also known as regionalism.
Q 30What is the name of the horse John Oakhurst trades for the Duchess's mule on leaving Poker Flat?
Five Spot
Five Spot goes to the weary Duchess while Oakhurst takes her sorry mule. Even that courtesy fails to draw the sullen party any closer together.