I often here people saying, “today is not my day.” What they really mean is that “today is not my (lucky) day.” When I hear that phrase, I always think to myself why did you put yourself in a position to become unlucky. I think the same thing when I hear these phases as well; “better to be lucky, than good”, or my personal favorite, “one time!”

Now, I agree that poker is a game of both luck AND skill, but I also believe that each player determines how much of poker is skill and how much poker is luck. You lose the ability to control of the game the moment you go all in before the river! This is when you allow “luck” to take over.

I consider myself a very unlucky poker player. (Need proof? Click here.) In fact, I believe that all good poker players are generally unlucky and that it is the bad poker players and the gamblers that are lucky.

Here’s my logic on this… Say you consider yourself a good player. You go all in and you’re called. You have the best hand (AA vs 85o for example). Do you consider yourself lucky when you win? I don’t because I have the best hand going in it is expected that I win. Now, if you lose in the same situation, do you consider yourself unlucky? Again, I do because the odds dictate that I should have won that hand.

On the flip side of the coin, does the guy who lost with the worst hand going in feels unlucky? I don’t think so at all, but when the same player sucks out on an opponent. He feels very lucky! So if you think about it, how often are good players going all in with the losing hand. Not often in my opinion. That’s why I believe that good players are generally unlucky.

The key lesson, or strategy here at the poker tables would be to try and avoid “all in” situations as much as possible. By going all in, you lose the ability to utilize other poker techniques to win with possibly the weaker hand that skilled players use. If you adjust your game to play less all in situations, I’m sure that you will find yourself going deeper into tournaments, and reaching ITM more often, or not going bust in cash sessions.