Luck Must be a Lady - She is Taking All My Money!

The 2009 World Series of Poker has started. Great timing as I struggle thru yet another - bad cards, bad flops, bad luck and ‘zigged when I should have zagged’ - spell in my poker wars.

So I think it is time for me to reflect on Lady Luck. Now we all know she exists and we all know we need her to succeed on the green felt. How much and how important ‘she’ is, is an on-going poker debate.

I thought I would show some pro and con quotes from the famous and the not so famous – and let you judge Lady Luck’s importance.

[Pro Luck] “Tournaments can rapidly become crap-shoots.” - Tom McEvoy
[Con Luck] “Luck favors the mind that is prepared.” – Louis Pasteur

I’d go with the poker player over the milk chemist.

[Pro Luck] “Enough luck is involved that even if a man is outclassed, he still might end up buying a television set with the pro’s money.” - Doyle Brunson
[Con Luck] “Good luck and bad luck are synonyms for good and bad judgment.” – Nik Faldo

Of course I was discussing a manufacturing plant at the time and not poker.

[Pro Luck] “Luck! There is such a thing!” - Nick ‘The Greek’ Dandalos
[Con Luck] “Most people are convinced luck plays the most important part in winning and losing, and that is the greatest thing that ever happened to good poker players.” – Tex Sheahan

Tex makes a stronger argument. Nick on the other hand, donated over $20 million in gambling winnings ($500 million by today’s inflation versus the 1950’s), but died broke.

[Pro Luck] “People underrate luck in the short run and overrate it in the long run.” - David Sklansky
[Con Luck] “I don’t trust luck. I have to think fast and figure the percentages.” – Johnny Moss

Now I’m confused. Sklansky, the biggest odds guy in poker - mentions luck?

[Pro Luck] “Anyone who does not know how to make the most of his luck has no right to complain if it passes him by.” - Cervantes
[Con Luck] “Luck is always going to break even. Everyone in the whole world is gonna get the same amount of luck.” – Puggy Pearson

Puggy never got my run of cards since I started on PokerStars or he would change his tune.

More next time.