You wanted to talk about luck. There is a short-term luck factor in poker, which is why I tell my students to play the game for the long run, as if it were just one game for their entire poker-playing lives. We'll talk more about that another time. For now, I'd like to bring up some more of my favorite quotations about luck. But first, let's take a look at the other side of the coin.

I'm talking today to skillful players. Bad players won't begin to understand, so they can move on to the luck quotations. (Are they gone? Good.)

Here is some seeming bad luck for you skillful players: The bad beats will never get to a point of breaking even between you and the bad players. You'll keep taking bad beats from poor players while rarely administering one yourself. Hark! I just heard a distant cry from a chorus of skillful players, as if in one voice: "Why? How can that be?"

It's simple. Because the unskilled player (who at this moment is looking for the luck quotations, hoping to find something to improve his) is much more willing to try for the long-shot draw. Conversely, the good player is almost always playing against him with the best hand. Yes, miracle draws occasionally do come in. When they do, and you happen to be in the way, bye-bye chips (and the beat goes on).

Now, here's the luck quotations. Hold it! I want to make sure I tell you about my summer vacation before I run out of time. This won't be the entire presentation of my vacation, which includes slides accompanied by guitar playing, but just a quick look at my too-brief journey.

I took a trip to Utah for a few days to get away from the blazing summer heat of Las Vegas. While driving through one of the Utah canyons, I spotted an official yellow highway sign that read, "Watch for Rocks." Given that warning, I immediately was on the lookout for tight poker players. Why the Utah Highway Department expects to find poker players - tight or loose - along the highway is a mystery to me. Unfortunately, I didn't see any.

Give me another minute on the luck quotations. (I'll bet those bad players are going nuts looking for them. Good! Serves them right. Payback for all of those bad beats.)

I wanted to mention that most of us play poker in small- or medium-limit games. We tend to think of money in terms of "twenties" and maybe "hundreds." High-limit players think in terms of "thousands." I had a conversation with a high-limit player in which he talked about money. Here are a couple of his thoughts:

"When I enter a game, I don't say to myself that I'll allow only a $5,000 loss. That's negative thinking, and bad for luck. In high-limit games, the players are close in caliber. I figure that out of 10 sessions, I should win six and lose four. So, my way of thinking is this: If in the six winning sessions, I win $30,000, and in the four losing sessions I lose $15,000, I'm a $15,000 winner. So, I try not to take any big losses. That's how I stay lucky." So goes his thinking. You and I might have to knock off a few zeros.

Luck - at last. Of course, there is good luck and there is bad luck. Sometimes it's difficult to tell the difference. I once knew a poker player who desperately needed to win $1,000 - something about rent and a car payment. About three hours into a $30-$60 game, he had the $1,000. He cashed out, went out on the street - and was hit by a truck. If he had been losing, he still would have been inside, out of harm's way. Was his winning the money good luck or bad luck? Hmm.

Now, here are the luck quotations - really!

"Luck favors those who prepare for it."

- Chinese proverb

"Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity."

- Another Chinese proverb

"Luck balances out. The sun don't shine on the same ol' dog's rear end every day."

- Darrell Royal, former University of Texas football coach

"Bob Gibson is the luckiest pitcher I ever saw. He always pitches on days when the other team doesn't score any runs."

- Tim McCarver, Gibson's catcher with the St. Louis Cardinals

"Now and then, a person is born who is so unlucky that he runs into accidents that started out happening to someone else."

- Don Marquis

"It's unlucky to be behind at the end of the game."

- Duffy Daugherty, former Michigan State University football coach

"In the long run, everyone gets the same amount of ice, but lucky people get theirs in the summer while others get theirs in the winter."

- I forget who said this, so I'll take the credit

Now, with any luck, I'll have a good nap. Kill the light on your way out.

Editor's note: Roy West, author of the bestseller 7 Card Stud, the Complete Course in Winning (available from Card Player), continues to give his successful poker lessons in Las Vegas to both tourists and locals. Ladies are welcome. Get his toll-free 800 number from his ad on Page 103.