Poker has some of the best quotes around. Here is a nice collection of poker quotes hand chosen by our staff. If you have a quote you would like to see here, please Contact Us and we will get it added!.
Those that can... play
Those that can't... teach
Those that think they can... play and then complain about their terrific bad beats.
"The problem with making bets that look like they want to get called is that they usually do."
"Poker is a combination of luck and skill. People think mastering the skill part is hard, but they're wrong. The trick to poker is mastering the luck." -Jesse May, from "Shut Up and Deal"
"Hold em is to stud what chess is to checkers." Johnny Moss
"The guy who invented poker was bright, but the guy who invented the chip was a genius." -- Big Julie
"Last night I stayed up late playing poker with Tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died." -- Steven Wright
"Whether he likes it or not, a man's character is stripped bare at the poker table; if the other players read him better than he does, he has only himself to blame. Unless he is both able and prepared to see himself as others do, flaws and all, he will be a loser in cards, as in life." -- Anthony Holden (from "Big Deal")
"Cards are war, in disguise of a sport." -- Charles Lamb, "Essays of Elia" (1832)
"You call...gonna be all over, baby." -- Scotty Nguyen, during the 1998 World Series of Poker. Down to the final 2 players, he said this to his opponent while he held the best possible hand.
"Poker is alot like sex, everyone 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. We're (the pros at the table) not playing together, but we're not playing against each other, either. It's like the Nature Channel. You don't see piranhas eating each other, do you?" --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, modern-day road gambler
"How long does it take to learn poker, Dad?" "All your life, son." David Spanier, "Total Poker" (1977)
"I recently watched a rnk novice win $10,000 in an hour-long poker session at the Dunes Hotel Casino in Las Vegas from five men who are considered to be among the twenty best Poker players in Las Vegas. That was chance, a momentary aberration in the probabilities. They are inevitable in any gambling game. If it weren't for them - and the long-odds winning they make possible - gambling would be barren of what makes it gambling. Certainly luck operates, to this limited extent, within the theory of probability. All that theory guarantees is that ultimately each player will have been dealt an approximately equal number of opportunities to win, an approximately equal number of good, bad, and indifferent hands." John Scarne, legendary gambling author
"It's hard work. Gambling. Playing poker. Don't let anyone tell you different. Think about what it's like sitting at a poker table with people whose only goal is to cut your throat, take your money, and leave you out back talking to yourself about what went wrong inside. That probably sounds harsh. But that's the way it is at the poker table. If you don't believe me, then you're the lamb that's going off to the slaughter." Stu Unger, three-time WSOP Champion
"See, in my world - the world of high-stakes gin and poker - we play for cold, hard cash. It's all business, pure and simple. Anyone who thinks cardplaying is a 'game' - I'll show you a loser. Money... M-O-N-E-Y. That's how you measure success. One dollar at a time. One chip at a time. That's how you keep score." Stu Unger
"Well, tomorrow's another day." John Hennigan, high-stakes ring game player and 4th Place finisher in the opening World Poker Tour tournament, after reportedly losing more than $1 Million on a Saturday in side action at the Bellagio.
"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. We're (the pros at the table) not playing together, but we're not playing against each other, either. It's like the Nature Channel. You don't see piranhas eating each other, do you?" --Mike from Rounders
"If, after the first twenty minutes, you don't know who the sucker at the table is, it's you." --Unknown
"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" ad
"If you are a guy, you know you play too much poker if your 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
Whether he likes it or not, a man's character is stripped bare at the poker table; if the other players read him better than he does, he has only himself to blame. Unless he is both able and prepared to see himself as others do, flaws and all, he will be a loser in cards, as in life." --Anthony Holden (from Big Deal)
"Perception is reality." Immanuel Kant
"Whether he likes it or not, a man’s character is stripped at the poker table; if the other players read him better than he does, he has only himself to blame. Unless he is both able and prepared to see himself as others do, flaws and all, he will be a loser in cards, as in life." Anthony Holden
"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, “Poker and the American Character” (1963)
"This was the first time he had seriously confronted what he was doing, and the force of that awareness came very abruptly- with a surging of his pulse and a frantic pounding in his head. He was about to gamble his life on that table, and the insanity of that risk filled him with a kind of awe." Paul Auster, “The Music Of Chance” (1990)
"Poker is…a fascinating, wonderful, intricate adventure on the high seas of human nature." Writer David A Daniel in, “Poker: How to Win at the Great American Game”
"Industry executives and analysts often mistakenly talk about strategy as if it were some kind of chess match. But in chess, you have just two opponents, each with identical resources, and with luck playing a minimal role. The real world is much more like a poker game, with multiple players trying to make the best of whatever hand fortune has dealt them. In our industry, Bill Gates owns the table until someone proves otherwise." David Moschella, “Computerworld”