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Poker Blog established in 2003 as the first stop for poker news, poker stories, and bad poker advice.

March 8, 2006

Luck

by G-Rob

Wish me luck on Monday. It's a very big day for me.

I'm a big fan of dumb luck. I like most things dumb... like Jessica Simpson, low calorie cookies, and American Idol. Dumb is free. Dumb is fearless. Dumb is like the twin sister of luck that we rarely acknowledge because she walk with a limp.

But why the hostility?

Here's what fellow poker blogger "Big Slick Nuts" (it's a reference to a poker hand mom and dad... not profanity) uses as a banner:

"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it."

-Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson was smart. That's strike one. Plus, I hate it when people say things like, "You make your own luck." I mean, it's too ignorant to be dumb.

Seneca, a dead Roman guy, said, "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." That's pretty dumb too. These are the same people who used to add and subtract with numbers like "X" and "V" and "mcmxxvii"... which, with the exception of Super Bowls, is pretty damn dumb.

I think the great American thinker Frank Sinatra said it best, "Luck be a lady Tooooonight."

As I type right now there's some guy from Children International, one of those adopt a poor foreign kid groups, on TV. I feel pretty lucky I wasn't born a poor foreign kid.

.......

There are some people who understand this concept, so central to our understanding of poker. Take "Predator314," another blogger, who left this comment on a recent BadBlood post:

"2.) Even if you are by far the strongest player in the field, you will still need to get lucky to win."

He's talking about any large MTT, or as I call them, MMTTs (Massive Multi-Table Tournaments). He's absolutely right.

Sometimes we get so lost in our defense of poker itself that we lose sight of basic facts. Poker, we say, isn't a game of chance, it's a game of skill. That's true to a point. But POKER IS GAMBLING and luck is always a factor.

If you play in a tourney you MUST win some coin flips. That's luck. It's Gambling.

If you play in a tourney you WILL make mistakes. None of us is perfect. Part of CJ's "luckbox" reputation comes from the suckouts he's unleashed. Truth is, he's an awesome player and suckouts are just part of the game. Plus, CJ is a problem gambler.

Luck is your friend. Don't deny her.

My bankroll experiment is going very well. I withdrew almost ALL of my Stars account and have been building it back up. From $6.50 last week I'm over $200 now. The low limit SNGs are free frikkin' money and I've won most of them outright. The one I didn't money in, I lost because of BAD luck. I've won 2 because I got lucky.

We spend so much of our time online focused on better play. I hope we do at least. Part of the motivation for the bankroll experiement was my tendancy to GAMBLE more with a bigger roll and I was losing the focus I needed. It took stripping the game almost bare to make that happen.

I'll need some luck to build it further.

I think we can MANUFACTURE our own success to some degree. That much is true, but nobody does it without luck.

Gamblers are deeply afraid of luck. We really shouldn't be.

..............

The NEW YORKER has a good piece on "Happiness" this week. Our concept of it has changed a great deal. In fact, our need to BE happy is a fairly recent Western desire. Cavemen weren't happy. The wanted to stay alive.

Even at the beginning of philosophy and all Western thought, people had the sense that things happened TO them... not because OF them. If the Gods will it, so it shall be. In the simplest sense, "Shit happens." Back then, our concept of "free will" was a few centuries away.

It was around the time of our nation's birth that we started our "pursuit of happiness" as if it was something we could work to acquire. Happiness is no longer a divine gift, it's something we earn. Of course, most of that pursuit leads us to an ever-unhappy void. Without the void, what would we advertise, I need a swiffer sweeper to fill the unhappy hole.

We turned our back on lady luck.

In this sense, by ignoring the progress of modern ideas, dumb gamblers stayed smart.

Luck Happens. Work all you want.

..................

Again, I need good luck on Monday. Take the day off from poker and send the positive suckouts my way.

I won't be playing poker but a possibly life changing opportunity is coming my way.

I'm qualified and prepared.

It's up to luck now.

| G-Rob's Thoughts