Dragaera

Poker (was Vlad)

Michael Angelo Tripp-Russo michaelangelo at tripp-russo.com
Fri Apr 2 14:34:19 PST 2004

<snip>

>I guess what I was trying to
>say is that being a successful player is about a lot more than just the
>odds of a certain draw or pot odds...knowing the odds is only a start to
>the skills you need.
>  
>
Another skill you need to win consistently at poker is luck - now hold 
on before you despise that statement - Even if you do everything with 
the best mathematics it is still possible for you to not only lose all 
your money, but to always lose all your money; there isn't a good poker 
player that isn't at least a little bit lucky.

I'm not saying it is likely to be good and still always lose, just that 
everything gets a little fuzzy when you try to be clairvoyant through 
math; just like card counters and blackjack making one mistake about the 
count in an hour can often cause more fiscal damage over the course of 
that hour than if they hadn't counted at all, and just because the count 
is good doesn't mean you'll win. Poker isn't just a numerical game, 
there are people involved and you must take that into account, always.

I'd rather be consistently lucky than good.