There is a saying in this game that goes a little something like this; “I’d rather be lucky than good.” There is more truth in this saying than you might believe. It really does pay to be lucky. Today I set a nice trap for a semi-decent player. I knew he had just lost a hand to a lucky draw. (there’s that word again! Luck.) I figured by his body language that he might be playing something with a little less profit expectation. I picked up pocket queens in middle position. He called in early position. I raised 4X the big blind, (only my second raise of the day and we were in the fifth blind level, but very few players are good enough to watch for something like that.) He called my raise. The flop was 9-8-3 with 2-hearts. He bet $1000. (Less than my original raise.) I thought about where he might have been. From his eyes and body language I did not read him for a big hand. He didn’t blink or glance or get tense as he had once or twice before when he had caught a flop. I pushed all-in for $7400. My thinking was I did not want him to draw to his second pair or his flush if that was what he was on. He thought long and hard and I could tell from his defeated body language that he was going to call. He did. He showed 9-10 off-suit, with no heart. Top pair. He had 5 outs to beat me, barring no straight re-draw on the turn. He stood up in despair, holding his head low. His large stack of chips that he had before was dwindling from poor calls, like the K-J suited calling a re-raise pre-flop and running down an A-K and an A-J, which is how he had most of the chips that he was now losing. I was very happy to see his call, until the river brought that 10. He had $700 more dollars than I did, and once again, a good hand goes down to luck. My luck was no match to his luck. His skill was basic at best. Some patience, some knowledge, but no clue how to pay attention to the whole table, and understand who is loose, who is solid, who is tight, and who is a rock. Watch the betting habits of every player and you will gain a better understanding of what they are doing and why they might be doing that.

Skill will get you to the final table quite often, even more often than luck will, but it takes luck to win a tournament. To have both luck and skill… well that’s a combination that can not be beat.