Gambling quotes

"How long does it take to learn poker, Dad?" "All your life, son."
Michael Pertwee

”Poker: the art of civilized bushwhacking.”
Nick Dandalos

”Poker is the game closest to the western conception of life, where life and thought are recognized as intimately combined, where free will prevails over philosophies of fate or of chance, where men are considered moral agents and where - at least in the short run - the important thing is not what happens but what people think happens.”
John Luckacs

”Cards are war, in disguise of a sport.”
Charles Lamb

”In a game of poker, I can put the players' souls in my pocket.”
Beausourire

”I believe in poker the way I believe in the American Dream. Poker is good for you. It enriches the soul, sharpens the intellect, heals the spirit, and - when played well, nourishes the wallet.”
Lou Krieger

”Poker. A game said to be played with cards for some purpose to this lexicographer unknown.”
Ambrose Bierce

”Poker is... a fascinating, wonderful, intricate adventure on the high seas of human nature.”
David A Daniel

“I could think of worse ways of going than at the poker table.”
Al Alvarez

“I think one of the interesting things about poker is that once you let your ego in, you're done for.”
Al Alvarez

“It's going to finish when I fold my hand and go up to the big poker game in the sky.”
Al Alvarez

“Yes, I think poker really isn't gambling”
Al Alvarez

“Last year people won more than one billion dollars playing poker. And casinos made twenty-seven billion just by being around those people”
Samantha Bee

“The best part about poker is there's no down side”
Samantha Bee

“What I know about poker, you can fit into a thimble with room left over, but I'm learning”
Wilford Brimley

“No, that's poker. To win, you've gotta get damned lucky”
Wilford Brimley

“As far as poker goes, I really didn't play poker but a few times in high school”
Doyle Brunson

“Once I accepted the fact my career in sports was over, I started playing poker to support myself”
Doyle Brunson

“People today who play in all the big fancy (legal) cardrooms don't understand what it was like back in those days to be a poker player with all the problems we had”
Doyle Brunson

“We got robbed in poker games lots of times”
Doyle Brunson

“Everybody today knows what I learned back then because it's in all the poker books. But nobody knew the right way to play back in those days”
Doyle Brunson

“Everybody today knows what I learned back then because it's in all the poker books. But nobody knew the right way to play back in those days”
Doyle Brunson

“I also learned from Johnny Moss - who was the best poker player in the world at that time. I got to watching him and studying him”
Doyle Brunson

“I mean there are usually no direct answers to how do you play such-and-such a hand when somebody raises in front. Every poker situation is different. The only way you can learn is to play”
Doyle Brunson

“Ninety percent of the hands aren't shown in a poker game”
Doyle Brunson

“I still do my best to promote poker”
Doyle Brunson

“When I saw those pictures of me at the poker tournament, I couldn't believe how old I looked”
Doyle Brunson

“If scientific reasoning were limited to the logical processes of arithmetic, we should not get very far in our understanding of the physical world. One might as well attempt to grasp the game of poker entirely by the use of the mathematics of probability”
Vannevar Bush

“As for poker, I've stayed away from that, even though when I was in Vegas for Ocean's Eleven, I would get accosted by these guys begging me to play. They just want to take my money. They see me, think "actor" and see some easy money”
Matt Damon

“I don't attempt to be a poker player before this crowd”
Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Ida and Pearl, the two Jewish broads from Cheyenne, that's how they were known. One of my first memories of my grandmother is of her trying to teach me how to play poker when I couldn't even see the table. I'd dress up and try to go gambling with the old ladies, and for some reason they'd let me in”
Gina Gershon

“Playing poker in their Quonset hut on Tinian, killing the last hours of the preatomic age”
Peter Goldman

“I love to relive the memories of when I was spry enough to fish the little trout streams. Otherwise, I like to write and play poker”
Tony Hillerman

“Air power is like poker. A second-best hand is like none at all - it will cost you dough and win you nothing”
George Kenney

“The poker player learns that sometimes both science and common sense are wrong; that the bumblebee can fly; that, perhaps, one should never trust an expert; that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of by those with an academic bent”
David Mamet

“Abruptly the poker of memory stirs the ashes of recollection and uncovers a forgotten ember, still smoldering down there, still hot, still glowing, still red as red”
William Manchester

“If you're playing a poker game and you look around the table and and can't tell who the sucker is, it's you”
Paul Newman

“Before we met Myelin, we were working on a Casino product that had Poker as one of its components”
Tim Page

“Initial feedback we got from people was that Poker could and should be a product in its own right. For us, that was definitely a case of us not seeing the forest for the trees since we are Poker nuts”
Tim Page

“Being able to pit your wits against literally hundreds of other people is really exciting and ultimately the biggest single challenge for a poker player”
Tim Page

“Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he's losing; nobody wants you to quit when you're ahead”
Jackie Robinson

“I've been playing Texas Hold 'em and other forms of poker since I was about 12”
Richard Roeper

“You're not allowed to give yourself a nickname. This holds true in life as well as in poker.”
Richard Roeper

“Living in the past is a Jethro Tull album, not a smart poker strategy”
Richard Roeper

“Meanwhile, there's more poker than soft porn on cable TV these days - and the broadcast networks are getting in on the game as well”
Richard Roeper

“And there's the World Series of Poker, known as the last American Gold Rush. In the 2005 tourney, more than 5,600 players competed for the top prize of $7.5 million”
Richard Roeper

“But when you're playing poker, you don't know the answer to that until after the cards are laid down, and then it's too late”
Fred Thompson

“I'm absolutely gonna win it, because I'm ruthless. I sit at the poker table and my job is to destroy people”
James Woods

“Last night I stayed up late playing poker with Tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died”
Steven Wright

"Poker is alot like sex, everone thinks they are the best, but most don't have a clue what they are doing!"
Dutch Boy'd

"These two have no idea what they're about to walk into. Down here to have a good time, they figure, Why not give poker a try? After all, how different can it be from the home games they've played their whole lives? Luck. All the luck in the world isn't gonna change things for these guys. They're simply overmatched.”
Mike from Rounders

"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 the species."
Mark Twain

"I've always had confidence, but I never let my ego get to the point that I think I'm the superstar, because I know that ego has destroyed many a poker career."
Jim Boyd

"Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand. "
Cool Hand Luke, 1967

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits"
Anonymous

"I never go looking for a sucker. I look for a Champion and make a sucker of of him."
"Amrillo" Slim Preston

"Really Bad Players Joining Daily. Come Win Some of Their Money."
"Superior Poker"

"If you are a guy, you know you play too much poker if your wet dreams involve "nuts" instead of breasts."
BreakEvenPlayer

"It is better to make people think you are a bad poker player, then to play and remove all doubt. Don't play to impress, play to win."
Michael Gersitz

"Don't get mad that you lost, get mad because you didn't win."
Michael Gersitz

“When we play, we must realize, before anything else, that we are out to make money.”
David Sklansky

"Poker may be a branch of psychological warfare, an art form or indeed a way of life – but it is also merely a game, in which money is simply the means of keeping score."
Anthony Holden, Big Deal

"Poker reveals to the frank observer something else of import—it will teach him about his own nature. Many bad players do not improve because the cannot bear self-knowledge."
David Mamet

"You cannot survive without that intangible quality we call heart. The mark of a top player is not how much he wins when he is winning but how he handles his losses. If you win for thirty days in a row, that makes no difference if on the thirty-first you have a bad night, go crazy, and throw it all away."
Bobby Baldwin

"Limit poker is a science, but no-limit is an art. In limit, you are shooting at a target. In no-limit, the target comes alive and shoots back at you."
Jack Strauss

“In the absence of any mathematical explanation, one thing is for certain; if you engage in games of chance long enough, the experience is bound to affect the way you see God. Successfully draw to an inside straight three hands in a row, and you’ve got to be blessed. But if you’re the person drawn out on, the one whose trip aces just got snapped for the third time, you will go home feeling cursed.”
Andy Bellin, Poker Nation

“The strong point in poker is never to lose your temper, either with those you are playing with or, more particularly, with the cards. There is no sympathy in poker. Always keep cool. If you lose your head you will lose all your chips.”
William J. Florence, From The Gentleman’s Handbook on Poker

“The real things to know is that folks will stand to lose more than they will to win. That’s the most important percentage there is. I mean, if they lose, they’re willin’ to lose everything. If they win, they’re usually satisfied to win enough to pay for dinner and a show. The best gamblers know that.”
Pug Pearson

“The cardinal sin in poker, worse than playing did cards, worse even than figuring your odds correctly, is becoming emotionally involved.”
Katy Lederer, A Girlhood Among Gamblers

“It never hurts for potential opponents to think you’re more than a little stupid and can hardly count all the money in your hip pocket, much less hold on to it..”
Amarillo Slim