A Winner Never Uses Chance or Luck to Win

In games of chance, what separates a player from a winner and are they mutually exclusive?

It takes some skill to be a good poker player. Certainly one needs to know the number of cards in a deck, how many suits in each deck and what the different hands are and which hand beats which. One must also be very good at math and be able to figure the odds of any card or hand showing up in the game and memory is an exceptional bonus.

Poker is more than a game of "chance;" chance takes the power away from the player. Poker is a game of choices that lead to a desired outcome and for a true winner there is no "luck" or "chance."

In order to be a successful player, one must know why they are in the game in the first place. Are they there just for the sake of being in the game or are they there to win. There is the love of the game and the winning, but there is also losing.

Poker is much more than randomly playing each hand, it is a mind game as well. To be a successful player, that is, to continually stay in the game one must be able to put energy into the game and then be able to take that energy and more from the others. A game of cards is a "closed system," and cannot sustain itself unless there are bets, and that means something has to be added. The addition is collateral, value or energy added to the game to keep it going, it is fuel that drives the game, when the money or collateral is gone so are the players.

All players know that in order to stay in the game they must continually feed the pot. The odds are that everyone in the game will win hands and lose hands and no one will win or lose all hands. So gamblers play odds and the odds are calculated during the game. Each player expects to lose a few hands and by playing the odds skilfully they will be the major winner at the end of the game. The game may include only one or many hands until the player stops putting energy (collateral) into the game.

In games of chance all participants are winners whether they have losing hands or not. The reason for the game is the game and an opportunity for the players to demonstrate their thoughts about themselves in a social interaction. Each player gets back from the game what he/she has mentally put into it, and the rewards are as individual as the player.

Who determines the winner in a game of poker? Most would agree it would be the one that walks away with the pot at the end of the game. However, this definition is really superficial because the root causes of the players are not considered. If one is playing long term strategy then walking away from the game a loser is only an illusion, it may well be just another step on the way to being a winner. So the strategies of others may never be judged accurately because the philosophy of any one particular player is unknown.

What separates a winner from a player or a loser with long-term gamblers is the internal thoughts of the player himself.

A player has many skills and control over how he plays his hands. He has some understanding of how other players play their hands from his own interaction with them. If the game is being played honestly the player has absolutely no control over the cards he receives as they are drawn randomly from a deck or several decks.

Some players stand out as winners over time because they continually win their hands, and yet all players have exactly the same odds or chances of getting the same cards from one game to another.

Is it that some players simply play their hands with more skill and can calculate the odds better or read the other players better? I believe it goes deeper than that.

When one looks around the table you see other players, you do not see their minds. It is the mind that drives the body, the body is the illusion of the player that turns over the cards, but the mind is controlling the game