POKER QUOTES
quotations about poker
Poker is a predatory game, and the terms players use to describe one another -- "sharks" and "fish," among others -- make that abundantly clear. In theory, that cut-throat culture is supposed to be confined to the felt, but one thing that's struck me in the time I've been writing about poker is how thoroughly it has seeped out and permeated all other corners of the poker world as well. That's not to say that it's impossible to succeed in poker while behaving ethically away from the tables, only that it is a recipe for disaster to assume that others are equally trustworthy.
ALEX WELDON
"Poker Rewards Enthusiasm, but Punishes Innocence", Part Time Poker, April 7, 2016
If you're playing a poker game and you look around the table and can't tell who the sucker is, it's you.
PAUL NEWMAN
attributed, Poker as Life: 101 Lessons from the World's Greatest Game
Whether he likes it or not, a man's character is stripped bare at the poker table; if the other players read him better than he does, he has only himself to blame. Unless he is both able and prepared to see himself as others do, flaws and all, he will be a loser in cards, as in life.
ANTHONY HOLDEN
Big Deal
Although poker is a highly sociable game, and can be played very well by friends for enjoyment, it is still a contest of skill and fortitude, the same as that of the gladiator or the knight. This is particularly so in poker tournaments, where the loss of chips is, indeed, sudden death.
VICTOR H. ROYER
Powerful Profits From Poker
The other day I was playing poker with Tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died.
STEVEN WRIGHT
stand-up routine
She's a poker player's wet dream. Sorry, sweetheart, you can't bluff for anything.
KATHERINE MCINTYRE
Poisoned Apple
Poker--particularly cash game poker--isn't like other games. You don't have to "beat" your opponents to win. You don't have to get the best score. Just a positive one. If one of your opponents wins $1,500, another wins $700, and you win $200, you haven't lost. You've won. The fact that those two other players won more is (or should be) utterly irrelevant to you. Maybe next time around they'll lose. Or maybe they'll win again. Who cares?
ED MILLER
"Poker Strategy With Ed Miller: Playing The Course", Card Player, April 5, 2016
Here's a freebie: Don't play poker with a kid who can read minds.
JAMES PATTERSON
The Final Warning
In poker, as in business, the secret is in knowing how to manage risk and capitalize on opportunity.
LOU KRIEGER
More Hold'em Excellence
We know poker as a game played by cowboys and card sharps, by soldiers and scouts, by presidents, peasants, and painted dogs. We know that unlike hearts or euchre or crazy eights, poker often requires players to match not just cards and wits, but egos and nerve as well. It's a game in which the competition can be intellectual, emotional, mental, psychological, analytical, verbal, and ... even physical.
MARTIN HARRIS
"Poker & Pop Culture: Telling the Story of America's Favorite Card Game", Poker News, May 3, 2016
All serious poker players try to minimize their tells, obviously. There are a couple ways to go about this. One is the robotic approach: where your face becomes a mask and your voice a monotone, at least while the hand is being played.... The other is the manic method, where you affect a whole bunch of tics, twitches, and expressions, and mix them up with a river of insane babble. The idea is to overwhelm your opponents with clues, so they can't sort out what's going on. This approach can be effective, but for normal people it's hard to pull off. (If you've spent part of your life in an institution, this method may come naturally.)
DAN HARRINGTON
Harrington on Hold 'em: Expert Strategy for No-Limit Tournaments
Poker is not simply a game of odds, moves and calculations. It is a game of controlled and exploited emotions -- including greed, fear, over-confidence and anger.
STEVEN LUBET
"Here's betting a computer can't play poker", Chicago Tribune, April 6, 2016
There are few things that are so unpardonably neglected in our country as poker. The upper class knows very little about it. Now and then you find ambassadors who have sort of a general knowledge of the game, but the ignorance of the people is fearful. Why, I have known clergymen, good men, kind-hearted, liberal, sincere, and all that, who did not know the meaning of a 'flush.' It is enough to make one ashamed of one's species.
MARK TWAIN
Life As I Find It
Poker is the only gambling game where the best hand does not always win, and where the worst hand can.
VICTOR H. ROYER
Powerful Profits From Poker
There is no sympathy in poker. Always keep cool. If you lose your head you will lose all your chips.
WILLIAM J. FLORENCE
The Gentleman's Handbook on Poker
Only about thirty poker players I can think of make serious money year in and year out playing poker. The rest make a killing one year, lose the next, or lose all the time and lie about it.
KATY LEDERER
interview, Identity Theory, February 12, 2005
Poker is not a game that is going to grab you by the balls. It's like shagging. There is a lot of effort for maybe one or two climactic moments.
LEE DAVY
"The Global Poker League: Opening Night Review", Calvin Ayre, April 7, 2016
Poker is a microcosm of all we admire and disdain about capitalism and democracy. It can be rough-hewn or polished, warm or cold, charitable and caring, or hard and impersonal, fickle and elusive, but ultimately it is fair, and right, and just.
LOU KRIEGER
Lou Krieger Online
Properly understood, poker is a betting game, not a card game. If you don't believe that, try playing for bottle caps or toothpicks. You will quickly find out that the game is pointless; no more strategic than War and involving less skill than Go Fish. Poker only becomes meaningful when played for real money, at which point considerations of fear, greed, over-confidence and self-doubt come into play.
STEVEN LUBET
"Here's betting a computer can't play poker", Chicago Tribune, April 6, 2016
In poker, good players win and poor players lose.
LOU KRIEGER
More Hold'em Excellence